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A hosepipe ban of the kind announced in England and Wales cannot be made in Scotland. Those bans are Temporary Use Bans, made by a water company under section 76 of the Water Industry Act 1991, and that Act does not extend to Scotland. No Scottish water company has that power, because the power does not exist here.
Scotland's equivalent is a water shortage order, under Part 7 of the Water Resources (Scotland) Act 2013. The difference is not just the name. In England and Wales a company imposes a ban on its own customers. In Scotland the company cannot: section 38 provides that “Scottish Water may propose to the Scottish Ministers that they make a water shortage order if it believes that there is—(a) a serious deficiency of water supplies in an area, or (b) a threat of a serious deficiency of water supplies in an area.” Scottish Water proposes; the Scottish Ministers decide.
What such an order may contain is framed as a purpose rather than a list. Section 40 provides that an order “may contain such provision as the Scottish Ministers consider necessary or expedient to abate” that deficiency or threat, and one of the things it may do is impose water saving measures. So the question of what would actually be restricted in Scotland is answered by ministers at the time, against that test, rather than by a company picking from a fixed menu.
Day to day, water scarcity in Scotland is managed further upstream, through the abstraction licences SEPA administers, rather than through domestic restrictions. Scottish Water is publicly owned and accountable to the Scottish Parliament rather than regulated by Ofwat, and it is the only supplier in Scotland, so there is no boundary to check and no bill to read to find out who supplies you. A restriction announced by a company in England has no application here, however close to the border it is.
One limitation worth stating. We cannot check Scottish Water's own page automatically: it refuses every automated request, including its robots file, and Scotland sits outside the England-only public notice portal that corroborates the other companies here. This page therefore relies on periodic manual checks, and the date of the last one is shown with the status below.
Water Resources (Scotland) Act 2013, Part 7: water shortage orders · s.38, proposal for an order · s.40, content of an order · Water Industry Act 1991, s.76: the England and Wales ban power
Edinburgh is supplied by Scottish Water, which has no Temporary Use Ban regime; its water comes from the Pentland and Moorfoot Hills reservoirs south of the city.
Last confirmed: no restrictions – checked 30 days ago.
We’re re-checking Scottish Water’s notice now, so we are not asserting that status today. Their own notice is authoritative. Check it before using a hosepipe.
We are an unofficial tracker, so Scottish Water’s own notice is the version that legally applies to you.
Temporary Use Bans are made under section 76 of the Water Industry Act 1991, which lists the eleven prohibited uses at s.76(2). The Water Use (Temporary Bans) Order 2010 (SI 2010/2231) defines them. A company cannot add to that list, so the eleven uses below are the same in Edinburgh as anywhere else in England and Wales.
The maximum is level 3 on the standard scale, currently £1,000, under section 76(5) of the Water Industry Act 1991. It is not a fixed penalty the company issues itself, and enforcement in practice begins with a warning.
A hosepipe ban is set by your water company, not your council, and most bans cover only part of a company’s area. Edinburgh is billed by Scottish Water, so its rules are the ones that apply here, but the boundary can run through a town: your postcode is the only certain answer.
Whatever the status, a watering can, a bucket and collected rainwater are never restricted. See what you can still do and how the fine works.
It depends on your exact address in Edinburgh. We could not confirm a single verdict, so check your postcode.
Edinburgh is supplied by Scottish Water. Your water bill confirms your supplier, and a ban is set per company, not per town, so the boundary can run through a town.
Up to 1,000 pounds, imposed by a magistrates' court on conviction, not a fixed penalty set by the water company. In practice enforcement starts with a warning.