Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the average length of time is that feed-in tariff applications have been queued since applying for full accreditation; and what steps his Department is taking to increase the timelines of that accreditation process.

Ofgem aims to approve applications in under 12 weeks where all the necessary information has been provided. Those applications still in the process after 12 weeks are likely to be complex or require further clarification from the applicant. The average time that full accreditation applications have been in the queue since applying is currently five and a half months.

Ofgem is committed to continuous improvement of accreditation processes and works with applicants to get applications approved as quickly as possible. In order to accomplish this Ofgem has now doubled the level of staffing in this area and made process improvements.