Reservoir charges
Our charges for reservoir safety
There are two charges which you may have to pay as a reservoir owner.
Registration fee for a large raised reservoir: £510
Annual compliance monitoring fee for a high-risk reservoir: £230
We do not accept cash payments.
The charges are exempt from VAT.
Registration Fee
You need to pay the registration fee at the time of registration.
We do not provide invoices for registration fees.
Failing to register a large raised reservoir is an offence under the Reservoirs Act 1975 and we may seek to recover our enforcement costs from you.
Annual compliance monitoring fee
If you are the undertaker for of a high-risk reservoir you must pay an annual compliance monitoring fee.
The charging period is from 1 April to 31 March. We will invoice you each year for the full amount due for the year.
If you only owe the monitoring fee for part of a year, we will invoice you pro rata for the period you are liable for. This can happen if we designate a reservoir as a high-risk reservoir part way through the year.
Annual fees must be paid as soon as you receive our invoice.
How to pay
Pay by credit card
We can accept card payments by Visa, MasterCard or Maestro. Phone us on 03000 65 3000 to make your payment. You’ll need to give the name of the reservoir it relates to and what the payment is for, either “registration” or “annual fee on invoice number…”
Pay by BACS
If you choose to pay by electronic transfer (BACS), you will need to use the following information to make your payment.
Company name: Natural Resources Wales
Company address: Income Department, PO BOX 663, Cardiff, CF24 0TP
Sort code: 60-70-80
Account number: 10014438
Bank: RBS
Address: National Westminster Bank Plc, 2½ Devonshire Square, London, EC2M 4BA
You should provide the BACS with the appropriate payment reference:
“Reservoir reg fee”
“Reservoir annual fee”
Pay by cheque
You should make your cheque or postal order payable to “Natural Resources Wales” and crossed ‘a/c payee only’.
On the back of your cheque you should write the name of the reservoir you are registering.
Send your cheque with your registration form to:
Natural Resources Wales
Income Department
PO BOX 663
Cardiff
CF24 0TP
Reservoirs with multiple undertakers
We apply one set of fees to a reservoir.
If you are one of several different undertakers, you must agree between yourselves how to apportion the fees. We advise that any agreement is made in writing.
Paying for engineers
Our fees do not include any costs for the appointment of qualified civil engineers or other specialist consultants to advise or direct work on your reservoir. You are liable for appointing and paying for these services according to your responsibilities and your reservoir’s risk designation.
Read more about reservoir safety.
If we consider it necessary to use an engineer to advise us, we will advise you to make the appropriate appointment. If you don’t do this, we may use our reserve or emergency powers. We will seek to recover the cost of this from you. In an emergency, we may appoint an engineer without notification if we consider the delay would further endanger the safety of your reservoir.
Our basis for charging
On 1 April 2013, Natural Resources Wales was appointed the duty of enforcement authority for the Reservoirs Act 1975, in Wales. This law seeks to protect public safety against the uncontrolled escape of water from large raised reservoirs.
In our work as a regulator, our duty is to ensure reservoir undertakers observe and comply with the law, we do this by providing advice and guidance so that undertakers understand the minimum standards of what they must do to help keep their dams and reservoir structures safe and are reminded of their duties for reservoir inspection, supervision and maintenance.
Natural Resources Wales in exercise of its powers provided by the Environment Act 1995, s41(1) may recover the costs of performing its functions conferred on it by the Reservoirs Act 1975; and with the approval of the Welsh Ministers, makes the following Reservoir Safety Compliance Charging Scheme.
Why you need to pay
Our costs for regulating reservoir safety are recovered from reservoir owners because they hold the main liability for reservoir safety. Our charges are payable for any reservoir registered under section 2(2B) of the 1975 Act, applicable from 1 October 2017.
The fees we charge represent a proportion of our costs for the service incurred in performing our functions under the Reservoirs Act 1975. The income we raise from our charges covers only a proportion of our overall costs. For example, we do not include costs for enforcement action because we will seek to recover these directly from an offender.
Contact us
To discuss billing enquiries please refer to the email addresses on the front of your invoice.
If you have any queries regarding the interpretation of charges please contact the charges team: enquiries@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk.
Natural Resources Wales
Charges Team, Finance & Corporate Services
Tŷ Cambria
29 Newport Road
Cardiff
CF24 0TP