About Water Policy and Shareholder Division

Water Policy Division

Water Policy Division is responsible for contributing to the health and well being of the community and the protection of the environment by developing and maintaining the policy and regulatory environment to provide a modern, high quality water and sewerage service, at the lowest possible cost.

Water Policy Division is responsible for advising Ministers on policy in relation to the water and sewerage industry and for discharging the Department’s statutory and other duties under the Water & Sewerage Services (NI) Order 2006.

Shareholder Unit

DfI Shareholder Unit is the sponsor body for the Department’s shareholding interest in Northern Ireland Water (NIW) - the government-owned company established to run water and sewerage services throughout Northern Ireland.

The Shareholder Unit plans to use Government’s Shareholder Executive model to be a proactive, intelligent and effective shareholder, working with government and the management team to help the business improve its performance.

While the day-to-day running of water and sewerage services is the responsibility of the NIW Company Board, the purpose of the Shareholder Unit is to monitor NIW’s business performance and outlook and engage with the Company Board, Chair and Executive Team on strategic and shareholder matters.

Broad areas of interest to the Shareholder include:

• Board appointments and remuneration
• business plans
• NIW Performance

Shareholder Unit - who we are

The Shareholder Unit consists of a small specialist team. It is the main mechanism through which the Department manages its shareholding interest in NIW.

The Unit’s role is to provide advice and recommendations to Ministers and the Department's Permanent Secretary; it is ultimately for them to make decisions on behalf of DfI based on Shareholder Unit best advice.

When NIW was established in April 2007, the new company was set a number of shareholder objectives. These are to:

• deliver substantially better quality services more efficiently and at lower cost
• manage the business within the financial parameters agreed in NIW’s Strategic Business Plan
• achieve the maximum affordable improvements in environmental compliance in both wastewater treatment and drinking water quality
• enhance shareholder value and provide returns that match or exceed the industry/regulatory cost of capital
• strive to outperform the efficiency and other targets set within the Strategic Business Plan framework.

How does the Shareholder Unit differ from the Water Policy Unit?

The Water Policy Unit deals with matters of policy relating to the new status of Northern Ireland Water, such as the charging regime.

As government is the shareholder of the business and has set shareholder objectives such as greater efficiency, best practice in government management of business means that the Department needs to separate its policy interest from its shareholder interest. Hence the Shareholder Unit and Water Policy Division are distinct business areas.