Jonathan Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether her Department is assessing potential alternatives to the Microgeneration Certification Scheme to which the Renewable Heat Incentive is linked.

Andrea Leadsom

The Department is in the process of working with the microgeneration industry to establish the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) as a legal entity that will operate independently of the Government. There is an established process for alternative schemes to MCS to come forward through the United Kingdom Accreditation Service and equivalent accreditation bodies in the EU. For example, through this process the Solar Keymark product scheme for solar thermal products has been recognised and treated as equivalent to MCS. In addition, the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) regulations give Ofgem the power to determine scheme equivalency; and they are currently finalising this process for equivalent schemes to be considered in specific reference to the RHI.