Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps is she taking to ensure that ECP assessment reports include the full list of recommendations.

The recommendations included within an EPC are generated automatically by the software used, based on the information collected during an assessment. The department sets out a number of requirements to ensure that EPCs are accurate and therefore contain appropriate recommendations for the building which has been assessed. We require accreditation schemes to verify that any prospective members have met the competency criteria for the strand applied for (by way of a qualification or through Approved Prior Experiential Learning (APEL)) before they are accredited as an energy assessor. Assessors are also required to undertake ongoing continuing professional development to maintain their competency.

We also require accreditation schemes to audit a sample of assessments to ensure they are accurate and have been undertaken as per agreed requirements.

Additionally, any software used for undertaking an energy assessment must be validated to ensure that it is operating in line with the relevant approved calculation methodology.