Graeme Young,  partner at national law firm Dundas & Wilson, says that the draft Water Bill still has a long way to go before it reaches the statute book.

At the beginning of the summer, Caroline Spelman announced the long awaited publication of the draft Water Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny. This is being undertaken by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, which had two weeks prior to the announcement stated quite forcibly that the Government's Water White Paper lacked "ambition and urgency". Having already heard a significant amount of evidence on the proposals the Committee has requested further written evidence on the draft Bill to be submitted by 14 September 2012.

Once the Committee has published its report on the draft Water Bill, the Government will then decide what amendments, if any, to make to the Bill before presenting it to Parliament. The Bill will then go through reading stages in the House of Commons followed by review by the standing committee of the Commons. Should the Bill survive this process it will then move onto the House of Lords for review. Both houses will consider amendments until a final version of the Bill can be agreed, at which point the Bill will be submitted to receive Royal Assent and become an Act with the force of law.

The recent cabinet reshuffle resulted in Caroline Spelman leaving DEFRA and being replaced by Owen Paterson, the former Northern Ireland Home Secretary.  The introduction of a new head to DEFRA may also interrupt the Government's timetable for putting the Water Bill before Parliament before the end of the next session.  The draft Bill therefore still has a long way to go.