Introduction

This Information and Guidance Note (IGN) has been developed to inform those wishing to understand and navigate the complex and intertwined nature of the many elements that make up the UK water industry.

Its target audiences include those:

• new to the industry,
• changing role or discipline within it,
• searching to establish whether a standard exists on a particular topic,
• simply curious to better understand terminology and relationships whose explanation is not easily found elsewhere.

The need for such a document was recognised following discussions between the Future Water Association (FWA) and the Water UK Standards Board.

With the Board’s approval, the IGN’s development was undertaken by a Task and Finish Group chaired by a representative of the FWA. The Group contained representatives from the wider industry sector. The draft IGN was open for three-months public comment on the WUK Standards Board website before finalisation and publication in its present form.

This IGN isn’t solely about standards. However, it uses standards (water company; water industry; British; European; International) as a means of illustrating relationships between industry stakeholders – all of whom employ standards in some way to support their interactions. It doesn’t refer to individual standards, except as examples, but should help the user better understand how standards are created, maintained and referenced in support of those relationships.

It aims to identify bodies that create standards and how to access and interact with those bodies’ standards outputs.