Six more companies have been fined a combined total of £41,480 for failure to comply with the requirements of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), with -99p Stores and ALS Testing both hit with the biggest penalties.
The mandatory energy efficiency scheme requires participants to measure and report their electricity and gas supplies on an annual basis to the CRC registry which calculates CRC emissions in tonnes of CO2.
However, all six firms failed to submit an annual report for the 2014/15 compliance year by the 31 July 2015 deadline with both -99p Stores and ALS Testing hit with fines of £13,500 each.
This was followed by the University of Hull, which was forced to pay £6,150 for the same offence, followed by Mansion Student Accommodation Fund (£2,580) and Aquaterra Leisure (£500).
The latter also received a £250 fine for failing to surrender sufficient allowances to cover their carbon emissions under another condition of the scheme. Deluxe Laboratories was required to pay £5,000 for the same failure to comply in the previous year, 2013/14.
The latest fines follow 21 civil penalties to have been published by the CRC’s regulator the Environment Agency between 1 December 2016 and the start of the scheme in April 2010. These reached a total value of £627,375 and range across both the public and private sectors.
Transport for London was hit with a £20,000 fine last year while the Planning Inspectorate was subject to a £2,850 fine.
There are approximately 1,869 currently reporting participants in the scheme, which will run until 31 March 2019 when it will be scrapped to make way for a new energy efficiency taxation framework.
An initial consultation on reforming the business energy efficiency tax landscape outlined the government’s plans to replace the shortfall in revenues from this change by increasing the main rates of the Climate Change Levy in April 2019.
A second consultation was expected before the end of 2016 on a simplified energy and carbon reporting framework however this has yet to be launched.
