Owners and occupiers of premises and anyone who installs plumbing systems or water fittings have the legal duty to ensure that the systems satisfy the regulations. Advanced notice must be given of proposed installations in most cases, so architects, building developers and plumbers have to follow the regulations on behalf of future owners or occupiers.

The Water Regulations Advisory Scheme ‘Approved Product ‘Scheme, replaced the Water Byelaws Scheme in 1999, when the Water Regulations replaced the local Water Byelaws. However, wherever possible the scheme maintained the same basic procedures for accepting test reports from the accredited laboratories.

  1. Complete Application Form.
  2. An assessment of the material information will be made. All non metallic materials will require having a current WRAS approval number, or a valid BS6920 test report.
  3. A mechanical testing in accordance with the Regulators Specification will follow the material assessment. Alternatively, WRAS have agreed that a NEN-EN-ISO/IEC 17065 Kiwa Certificate can be used as a basis for the mechanical testing requirements if it can be demonstrated that the Kiwa Evaluation Guideline provides an equivalent level of protection and performance.
  4. Following the completion of the testing requirements, Kiwa staff will draft the necessary test reports and product descriptions, and submit them to WRAS to be considered.
  5. The WRAS approval panel – TAP – Product and Assessment Group meetings are at various times of the year, approximately 6-8 weeks. At this meeting the panel will consider the product and the test results for approval.
  6. Approvals are valid for a period of 5 years and will require a re-test for reapproval.