Approach to use of new evidence and updated information 95. Where we consider it furthers our overriding objective, we intend to use additional and updated information available, provided in our view that it is complete and robust such that we can place reliance on it. 96. We note that Citizens Advice, CCW and Ofwat have requested that we do not update for more recent data.
We understand the rationale that taking account of more recent data than was available to Ofwat risks creating incentives on companies to only challenge Ofwat’s determinations where they consider the new data likely to result in a better outcome for their businesses, and potentially undermines Ofwat’s business planning process which seeks to address information asymmetry risks. However, we do not consider that the current legal framework for our redeterminations allows us to disregard relevant, available and robust data. 31 97.
We will apply timing ‘cut-offs’ for the inclusion of new data in order to enable us to quality assure our calculations and complete our analysis ahead of publication of our provisional and final redeterminations (see paragraph 83). 98. We note that Disputing Companies have requested that we use outturn company performance data for the year 2024-25 in our redeterminations, updating from the forecasts used by Ofwat. As the process of ‘cleaning’ this data to make it robust is expected to take until late August 2025, it would not be feasible for us to use this in a mid-September provisional determination. We will consider whether to update our assessment using this data for the final report.
31 The Independent Water Commission is considering the regulatory framework for future controls, taking into account submissions from a wide range of stakeholders including the CMA: CMA response to the Independent Water Commission's call for evidence . 24