Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 11 November 2025
We have known for a long time—indeed, such matters were raised when the committee discussed EPCs back in January—that there have been long-standing concerns about the quality of EPCs.
In its various consultations and discussions with stakeholders and consumer bodies such as Which?, which the cabinet secretary mentioned, the Government has been explicit that the quality of EPCs needs to improve. The industry wants to do that; it recognises the need for improvement. Moving to the home energy model will help, because it is more accurate and so we should get more accurate ratings as a result.
When it comes to assessor skills and training, we have committed to, and have launched with the UK Government, a review of all the national occupational standards that specify what domestic assessors and non-domestic assessors must do to ensure that they are appropriately skilled and qualified. A wide-ranging consultation to improve and update those standards, which will in turn improve the quality of EPCs, is under way.
The second thing that we are doing in Scotland, which is quite distinctive, is aligning with changes to the EU directive that was the original basis for EPCs, to bring in a requirement for on-site auditing. At the moment, 2 per cent of EPCs are audited by using a desk-based system. We aim to improve that system through smart auditing, which will more accurately and automatically flag potential errors in the results that have been reported on certificates. The on-site audit will take a sample of the results: 2 per cent of certificates are currently subject to desk-based audit and 10 per cent of those will be subject to on-site audit, which will involve sending someone out to check that the certificate is indeed accurate. We think that that will drive up quality significantly. We are working with the Danish and Irish Governments on that approach.