Code change proposals to be open to all

From 18 December, anyone will be able to propose a change to the retail market Codes.

That was one of a suite of changes approved by Ofwat to improve the process by which the rules of the non-household retail market can be altered.

The Code Change Committee proposed altering the rules around code changes in June, recommending:

• expanding proposer eligibility to include CCW and Strategic Panel sub-committees;

• introducing Initial Acceptance Criteria, to ensure that a change proposal meets basic requirements and provides sufficient detail and evidence to enable further consideration;

• introducing Acceptance and Prioritisation Criteria, to enable the CCC to identify change that has potential to deliver benefits to customers and the market, to focus resource on developing strategic, high-value change;

• expanding solution ownership and allowing MOSL to develop alternative solutions if appropriate, to allow creativity and innovation and identification of the best solution to a problem;

• introducing interim updates and reprioritisation to allow resources to be re-allocated as priorities change and to ensure that information is shared and the CCC is kept updated;

• allowing changes to "fail fast’" if appropriate, to allow changes to be rejected at an early stage if they do not merit further progression, thus enabling resource to be allocated elsewhere and not wasted.

Ofwat approved these changes (CPM053/CPW146) but with amendments, incliding notably, that change proposals can be raised by anyone, and to introduce a right of appeal to Ofwat if a proposer considers that MOSL has incorrectly refused to accept the submission of a Change Proposal following assessment against the Initial Acceptance Criteria.

The changes are designed to address shortcomings of the existing change process, including insufficient focus on the customer, process inefficiency, timeliness, piecemeal change and restricted solution ownership.