Summary
The UK’s tap water safety is at risk due to the closure of all domestic laboratories certified to test water treatment products under EU-derived Regulation 31.
Without certified labs, new products cannot be approved, and existing ones requiring retesting are becoming non-compliant.
Industry insiders blame Brexit, as EU countries will share lab capacity starting in 2026, while UK rules prohibit foreign testing.
This has created a backlog of products, limited market competition, and raised costs. While officials claim water remains safe, experts warn of delays in adopting innovative treatments.
Scottish tap water is a public/government company.
They do a good job.
Unfortunately, climate change is impacting the level of reservoirs & water ways (ie, going down), and Scottish people use more water than English people (like 30% more, a substantial amount).
Hopefully Scottish water continues to be great, and continue to get the funding they need to do a good job
You need lots of water to make all that Irn Bru.
Rusting them girders has become harder since they painted the forth rail bridge with that anti-rust coating!
Any idea why there’s that 30% difference? Just a guess but could it be that in Glasgow water’s free?
Not just in Glasgow. Water is a flat rate covered by council tax across all of Scotland.
It’s likely because we don’t pay for units used, and awareness of water conservation hasn’t happened/stuck.
That’s what I was thinking. Well there’s always been plenty of water in Scotland afaik but if that’s going to change they’re probably going to start charging for it