Having completed a ESOS Energy Assessment for a client who was late in recognising their need for compliance to the ESOS Regulation, I am aware that the Environment Agency has sent e-mails to all those who made an “Intent to Comply” Notification informing them of a deadline for completing their Notification of Compliance by 15 April 2016.
After this date, the Agency state that they “will need to pursue enforcement as appropriate to ensure the scheme is implemented and its benefits realised”.
They go on to say “Under the ESOS Regulations 2014 these actions can include service of an enforcement notice requiring remedial steps, financial civil penalties and the publication of information on the non-compliance”.
In the case of a failure to notify compliance, the maximum penalty (regulation 43, ESOS Regulations 2014) is:
- up to £5000;
- up to £500 for each working day the responsible undertaking remains in breach, starting on the day after the service of the penalty notice subject to a maximum of 80 working days; and
- publication.
There is a strong financial incentive for large organisations defined under the ESOS Regulations to take decisive action to comply.
It should be noted that there remains one further route to compliance by achieving accredited ISO 50001:2011. Although it is widely anticipated that unless an organisation has already embarked on this route, they are unlikely to meet the deadline for this route (30 June 2016).
Any organisations unable to meet the 15 April 2016 deadline for the routes to compliance comprising: ESOS compliant Energy Audits, Display Energy Certificates (DECs) & Green Deal Assessments (GDAs) are requested to contact the ESOS Helpdesk to discuss their circumstances.
Further details on the application of the Environment Agency’s enforcement strategy for non-compliance under the ESOS Regulation can be found in pages 65 -69 of their Enforcement and Sanctions – Guidance (Version 4.0).