PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Housing: Energy (10 March 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what processes are in place to monitor the standard of installations carried out under (a) the Energy Company Obligation and the Green Deal and (b) the Warm Front Scheme; what processes are in place to limit the use of sub-contractors in those schemes; and what right of redress householders have in the event that installations are not of a satisfactory standard.

Asked by:
Kerry McCarthy (Labour)

Under ECO, Ofgem (the scheme administrator) requires that energy suppliers contract independent third parties to undertake technical monitoring on a 5% representative sample of ECO measures. Where a measure has failed a technical monitoring question, Ofgem requires that remedial action is undertaken. Ofgem publishes a technical monitoring report on its website. All installers must be certified by a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2030 body, and further monitoring is conducted by these bodies. Ofgem can refuse to award ECO savings to an energy company where works are not compliant with PAS 2030.

Ofgem requires that customers who have cavity wall and solid wall insulation measures installed under ECO are provided with a 25-year guarantee. Boiler repairs are required to have a one- or two-year warranty and from 1 April 2015 replacement boilers will also be required to have a warranty provided to the consumer. These guarantees and warranties must cover both the parts and installation.

Customers should direct complaints to the company who installed the measure in the first instance, however if they are not satisfied with the response they should speak with the guarantee company and/or the energy company that funded the measure. Customers can contact Ofgem to find out which energy company funded the measure.

As with all building work, customers can contact Citizen’s Advice or Trading Standards if they are unsatisfied with the work conducted by the installation company.

There are no processes to limit the use of sub-contractors under ECO (though measures must be installed in accordance with PAS 2030). It is for the obligated energy suppliers to set their own strategies to meet their obligations.

As specified in the Energy Act 2011, Assessors and Installers must be authorised in order to operate under the Green Deal. To be authorised, assessors and installers must meet the Green Deal Assessor and Installer standards and be certified against those standards by Certification Bodies. All Green Deal Installers are certified to the PAS2030 standard by Green Deal Certification Bodies.

The relevant Certification Body is then responsible for the monitoring of those organisations they have certified. All Certification Bodies will have a complaints procedure and will be required to handle complaints over installation quality for their certified organisations.

The Government funded Warm Front Scheme closed on 19 January 2013, and all installations were completed by 31 December 2013. Any customers who received support under the scheme and wish to make a complaint continue to benefit from an established complaints procedure overseen by the scheme administrator, Carillion Energy Services.

Answered by:
Amber Rudd (Independent)
19 March 2015