The Environment Agency has taken enforcement action on more than 350 organisations that have failed to meet their obligations under the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS).
The scheme requires businesses to audit their energy use and covers all large businesses in the UK that employ at least 250 people, or have an annual turnover above £38.9 million and an annual balance sheet total above £33.4 million.
The deadline for submitting energy audits under the first round of the scheme was December 2015. The agency, which regulates ESOS, said that around 1,500 organisations did not submit data by this deadline. It has now completed investigations of these companies and has confirmed that around 500 of these organisations were covered by the scheme and should have submitted data.
The agency confirmed that it had served around 500 enforcement notices on these organisations and will continue with its enforcement work for the rest of the year.
It has also found that several of the 1,000 organisations which claimed that they did not come under the scheme were incorrect. These organisations will also receive enforcement notices in the next few months, it said.
The regulator has taken enforcement action against 50 organisations out of around 2,800 who told the agency they would be late submitting their data. These cases were all now resolved, the agency confirmed.
The agency has audited more than 200 ESOS assessments that were submitted. Only 16% of organisations were compliant with ESOS, while 75% were found to be mostly compliant, but had to take actions to improve their assessments.
Around 5% of organisations were found to be in breach of ESOS, the agency said. It has sent enforcement notices detailing actions required to make assessments compliant, it added. Organisations will face ‘substantial’ fines if these conditions are not met, the agency said.
The agency intends to conduct around another 180 audits this financial year, it said. It has listed the main areas where remedial actions were needed, see below.
The agency’s full data on ESOS is available here.
