The Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland

The Drinking Water Quality Regulator (DWQR) is the independent regulator for Scotland that ensures Scottish drinking water is safe to consume from both public and private water supplies.

Making a splash

160,000
Scottish people rely on Private Water Supplies
6,000
Private Water Supply owners eligible for web app usage
328
risk assessments taken

The Challenge

In October 2017 the Water Intended for Human Consumption (Private Water Supplies) (Scotland) Regulations came into force. The DWQR has an independent role in verifying the Regulations are complied with and reports on compliance to the European Commission.

Prior to DWQR’s collaboration with Storm, Local Authorities in Scotland each had their own approach to risk assessment regarding the safety and operation of private water supplies and their cleanliness.

The change in legislation means local authorities are required to maintain a register of every private water supply (PWS) to premises in its area and risk assess PWS to a standard approved by DWQR. DWQR therefore required a web application to guide local authorities through the PWS registration and risk assessment process to a format that meets regulatory requirements. The application had to provide a user-friendly means for local authorities to input and store information relating to individual PWSs in a format visible to the relevant local authority and DWQR via a secure log in system.

The Objectives

  • Develop a private water supply register

    A local authority can input data for each private water supply in their area, creating new PWS, edit existing or archiving. Sources, tanks and properties making up a PWS could be plotted onto a map. A single local authority can have around 8,000 PWS. DWQR can export data on single private water supplies and all PWS associated with a local authority.

  • Enable risk assessments to be completed and submitted

    Development of a series of sections and questions to form a risk assessment. Local authorities required to be able to complete a risk assessment for each PWS and submit these to DWQR.

  • Design for the user

    The application must be usable for Local Authorities from different parts of Scotland – including a considerable portion located in rural areas, with poor internet connections.

  • Host and store data securely

    Storm set up a secure Azure hosting environment and various permission levels to access stored data.
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Key Features

Manage risk assessments

Each risk assessment includes a series of sections, sub-sections and questions across sources, tanks, properties, centralised treatment and distribution and management. A Risk Assessor can select the sub-sections which are applicable or not applicable for each section.

The risk assessment autosaves while the user is entering data. Risk assessments can be returned to for completion in stages before submission.

Current risk assessments can be reviewed for incomplete sections and unanswered mandatory questions before submission.

Dashboards
A summary dashboard to allow users to see all applicable risk assessments and their renewal dates.
Reporting
Reporting functionality for DWQR to export data across all local authorities and individual PWS.
Secure login and user management
A secure login to ensure information is only displayed to those with the appropriate permissions. User roles include local authority risk assessor, local authority interrogator and DWQR Admin.
Creation of drinking water safety plans
Support local authorities to create a drinking water safety plan for each PWS within a risk assessment. Plans are available for export.

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