ESOS compliance figures up by less than 20%
A total of 5948 firms have submitted notifications of compliance, with exactly 1000 businesses registering their intent to comply, meaning approximately 30 per cent of the estimated 10,000 affected companies have not complied in time for the EA’s extended deadline of January 29.
The two days before the January limit saw 1015 firms submit their paperwork, mirroring the late rush to comply ahead of the first deadline in December, while non-compliant companies risk incurring a fine of up to £50,000, as well as an additional £800 a day capped at 80 days, with ESOS project manager Jo Scully having told Energyzine last month that the EA would publish information on non-compliant organisations if a penalty is issued against them.
A spokesperson for the EA said: “We believe that approximately 70% of organisations that qualify for ESOS are on the road to compliance. ‘It will take some time to match all the notifications to the expected participant groups and verify whether the remaining organisations do in fact qualify.
“Our focus is on bringing organisations into compliance with ESOS and we will start contacting those organisations that have not yet complied this month. We will normally use enforcement notices to bring organisations into compliance and only issue civil penalties in the most serious cases.”
Commenting on the latest figures, Dave Cockshott, chief commercial officer at Inenco, said: “We would assume that the Environment Agency will follow up on their vow to take non-compliance seriously, both for its own credibility and to avoid undermining the hard work put in by those businesses who have complied with the scheme.
“The EA has promised to focus on bringing businesses into compliance and this is paramount: companies who can demonstrate that progress has been made must be allowed time to complete outstanding work.
“Where Non-compliance enforcement is actioned it should be directed at organisations that are unable to demonstrate engagement and have not started on the ESOS journey, to ensure they take steps to comply. All 10,000 businesses must complete their ESOS reports, not least to prevent businesses from missing out on the chance to identify considerable opportunities to reduce costs and save energy.”
