The Environment Agency (EA) has been issuing legal enforcement notices and warnings of proposed penalties to organisations who they believe qualify for ESOS but have not notified their compliance.
The deadline for submitting a notification of compliance for phase 3 of ESOS was 5 June 2024.
Organisations qualifying for ESOS must achieve compliance or they could face a penalty of up to £50,000.
ESOS is a mandatory energy assessment scheme for organisations that, on 31 December 2022:
If you’ve been served with an enforcement notice, or have received notice of a civil penalty, it's important to act quickly. If you make representations to the EA or appeal the EA’s penalty, it may be possible to have it reduced or cancelled.
Any organisation that qualifies for ESOS may also be required to participate in other climate change regimes, including the UK Emissions Trading System (UK ETS), the Environmental Permitting regime, the Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases regime (F-gas regime) and voluntary schemes such as Climate Change Agreements (CCA) scheme.
The EA is increasingly active in enforcing all of these regimes but there are steps that can be taken to reduce your exposure to legal action and potentially very large penalties, for example a fine in the region of £1 million has been imposed for F-gas regime non-compliance.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of compliance with these regimes please contact Ian Manners.
