Heat Pump Sector Deal Expert Advisory Group: Scottish Government response

Recommendation 7

Industry and government should work together to ensure the necessary certification and quality assurance standards are met.

Scottish Government Response

High quality assurance standards are vitally important to ensure that any work carried out as part of the Green Heat transition is done to a high standard, represents good value for money and achieves the necessary savings all whilst maintaining or raising high comfort levels in our buildings. The Scottish Government continue to work with industry to ensure these standards are met.

We published our Heat in Buildings Quality Assurance Policy Statement^[8] on 7 June 2022, which outlines the standards, skills and certification required for installers on Scottish Government schemes, ways to tackle scams and mis-selling and how to improve public engagement.

The statement reiterates our commitment to ensuring high customer care and quality standards in our funded work. For our forthcoming successor to the Home Energy Scotland loans and cashback scheme, we will introduce a new requirement that applicants must use approved suppliers through Scotland's TrustMark scheme for energy efficiency work. Microgeneration work will retain the current requirements for Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) approved suppliers. This requirement will also apply to future schemes and programmes where appropriate.

Our policy statement provides clarity to the supply chain about our goals for standards, skills, and quality assurance, allowing them to engage effectively in our burgeoning retrofit market.

We offer financial support through the MCS Certification Fund^[9], which is administered by the Energy Savings Trust Green Heat Installer Engagement Programme. This fund provides up to 75% of the initial fees required to gain MCS accreditation.