House of Commons EFRA Committee Chair Alistair Carmichael MP has written to Chris Train, Chair of South East Water, to urgently seek clarity regarding evidence that was given to MPs yesterday.

The letter, which was sent by email today, opens by saying:

“I am writing to raise significant concerns about the evidence provided to the EFRA Committee on 6 January by the Chief Executive of South East Water (SEW), David Hinton, and the Customer Services Director, Tanya Sephton.

“Following the evidence given by Mr Hinton and Ms Sephton, the Chief Inspector of the Drinking Water Inspectorate raised serious questions about the accuracy and intent of the information provided to the Committee. This is in addition to the real concerns raised by the Committee and Chief Inspector around the preparations for, conduct during, and response to the incident itself.”

The letter goes on to set out “a number of inconsistencies” between the Chief Executive’s account and that of the Drinking Water Inspectorate.

Alistair Carmichael writes:

“Much of the testimony from South East Water was contradicted by Marcus Rink, the Chief Inspector of Drinking Water. Mr Rink told the Committee that the event last year “should not have been a surprise” and that there was nothing wrong with the source water. Mr Rink highlighted a number of failures which should have prevented the incident….

“Several of these concerns had been highlighted to the company in previous years, but no action had been taken.

“Mr Rink also had serious concerns about the transparency and engagement of SEW with both the DWI and the Committee…

“Despite the fact that the DWI’s analysis is based on data provided by the company itself, it paints a considerably different picture of the chain of events that led to the outage and boil notices.”

The EFRA Chair has asked Chris Train to provide a full response to the letter no later than 5pm on Monday 12 January.

The letter concludes:

“Subject to what you state in your reply, I am currently minded to seek the agreement of the Committee to hold a further evidence session in relation to South East Water. It would be my intention to request the attendance of both your chief executive and yourself at that further hearing.”