Regulatory performance
Every year we publish information about our performance and you can find our full library of current and historic documents online.
We're now in the third year of our business plan for the period covering 2020 to 2025, known as AMP7.
We made 40 performance commitments in our business plan, which was fast-tracked by Ofwat and, we're pleased to present our progress against the delivery of our customer outcomes for our business plan for AMP7.
Our Annual Performance Report sets out how well we’ve performed against our commitments during the year.
It also includes our Board’s Risk and Compliance Statement, and APR Assurance approach and outputs.
In addition, we also publish statutory accounting information for Severn Trent Water in our Annual Report and Accounts:
We want to make sure that our customers and stakeholders can rely on the information in our Annual Performance Report and other information we publish. We continue to build on the robust assurance processes developed in 2015/16.
Our statement of risks, strengths and weaknesses sets out the main areas of risk we identified to the information we publish. We developed an assurance plan – first in draft for consultation, and then in final - to address them. Our assurance summary sets out the main findings from our assurance this year.
Our documents below go into detail on our statements of risk, final assurance plan, assurance summary and compliance statement.:
In January 2014, Ofwat published ‘Board leadership, transparency and governance – principles’, which it considers should apply to regulated water companies. Severn Trent is fully supportive of Ofwat’s objective of raising the standards in this area. This document sets out Severn Trent’s code for achieving these principles.
Severn Trent Plc (ST Plc) is a listed company and complies with the UK Corporate Governance Code. The governance section of the ST Plc Annual Report and Accounts sets out how ST Plc applies the principles of the UK Corporate Governance Code. ST Plc and its regulated subsidiary, Severn Trent Water Limited (STW), have the same directors.
We introduced this structure in 2007 to reflect the fact that STW is the largest part of the Severn Trent group. This approach ensures that STW’s strategic and operational issues engage the ST Plc’s Board and that the two companies have the same governance standards.
We have processes in place to ensure the directors make formal decisions in their capacity as directors of ST Plc and STW respectively. None of the directors represent investors and neither company has alternate directors. There is also an explicit division of responsibility as between the (independent on appointment) Chairman and Chief Executive.
The Board committees are all led by our independent non-executive directors who comprise the majority of membership of each committee. Details of the committees are also reported publicly in the ST Plc Annual Report and Accounts. The Board committees are formally constituted as committees of ST Plc, rather than STW, but in practice their remit includes work in respect of STW. In particular the Audit Committee reviews STW’s:
In practical terms this means that STW is substantially in compliance with the UK Corporate Governance Code.
Further information on the group structure, including a visual of the group, can be found at the end of this page.
The below spreadsheets provide information about our sewage and sludge production sites (known as wastewater treatment works (WwTWs) and sludge treatment facilities (STCs)).
They are provided in line with guidelines published by Ofwat on their website. Their purpose is to facilitate conversations between companies and third parties to explore market opportunities.
Severn Trent’s code on complying with Ofwat’s principles is to continue to comply with the UK Corporate Governance Code at ST Plc level.
Where appropriate and reasonably practicable, Severn Trent Water Limited ('STW') will continue to comply with the UK Corporate Governance Code with the exception that the Board Committees will continue to operate at the ST Plc level rather than duplicating the arrangements at the regulated company level. The Board considers that these arrangements are appropriate and effective.
The STW Annual Report and Accounts details more fully how it complies with the UK Corporate Governance Code. The STW Annual Report and Accounts were published on 15th July 2022 and are available above. The STW Annual Report and Accounts for 31 March 2023 will be published in July 2023.
Hannah Woodall-Pagan
Company Secretary
This chart sets out the ownership structure within the Severn Trent group, showing those companies that connect our regulated and operating companies to Severn Trent Plc.
All entities are incorporated in England and Wales and are 100% owned unless otherwise shown. Only principal holding companies and trading entities are included for ease of reference. (Non-trading and dormant entities are excluded unless they are a principal holding company).
Note
(1) Acts as lesser of assets to other group companies
(2) Incorporated and registered in Guernsey
(3) No longer holds any overseas interests
(4) Joint venture with United Utilities PLC