Instruments of interest
Draft Electricity and Gas (Energy Company Obligation) Order 2022
2.This Order proposes to replace the Energy Company Obligation 3 (ECO3) which expired on 31 March 2022 with a new obligation (ECO4) which will run until 31 March 2026. Under the ECO scheme, gas and electricity suppliers above a certain size are required to promote the installation of energy efficiency measures, such as loft or wall insulation, and heating measures, to reduce the heating cost to low income and vulnerable households and those at risk of fuel poverty in Great Britain. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) says that to ensure the scheme is focussed on the lowest income households, disability benefits have been removed from the eligibility criteria as these are not means tested. Households in receipt of both disability benefits and means tested benefits, however, will continue to be eligible.
3.ECO4 will continue to provide support to owner-occupied premises, private rented premises and social housing, with the costs being passed on to consumers. According to BEIS, the ECO scheme will increase in value from £640 million (ECO3) to £1 billion (ECO4) per year (2021 prices). The Department estimates that the average cost of ECO4 on a household bill will be around £37 per year for a dual fuel customer, while for households benefitting from an ECO4 installation, the average gross saving on their annual dual fuel bill will be around £290.
4.As ECO3 expired at the end of March, there will be a gap before ECO4 is expected to launch in July. According to BEIS, the draft Regulations therefore include provisions for an ‘interim delivery’ period between 1 April and 30 June, during which energy suppliers can deliver to slightly amended ECO3 rules and ‘early delivery’ is also permitted, so that energy suppliers can deliver to the new ECO4 rules ahead of the Regulations coming into force. BEIS says that both routes are currently being used to install energy efficiency measures.
Draft Register of Overseas Entities (Delivery, Protection and Trust Services) Regulations 2022
5.The purpose of these draft Regulations is to implement aspects of the new Register of Overseas Entities which was created by the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (“the Act”). The Act will require overseas entities owning or buying property in the UK to provide information to the Registrar of Companies, including about their “beneficial owners”, with the aim of helping the authorities identify those seeking to use the UK property market to launder money.
6.These draft Regulations are the first of a series of regulations needed to implement the Register. The instrument proposes to:
- Require overseas entities to deliver certain documents to the Registrar of Companies of England and Wales by electronic means.
- Set up a protection regime which will allow beneficial owners and managing officers of overseas entities to apply to have their information made unavailable for public inspection and not disclosable, where they can provide evidence that they or someone living with them are at serious risk of violence or intimidation. We note that any information protected from public disclosure in this way will still be available to law enforcement.
- Ensure that offshore trusts and corporate service providers acting as corporate trustees of trusts, where they are governed by the law of a country or territory outside of the UK, are subject to their own disclosure requirements, so that they fall within the definition of ‘registrable beneficial owner’. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) explains that if this definition is met, these legal entities will have to take reasonable steps to provide the Registrar with the required information about the trusts, thereby providing greater transparency about the true owners and beneficiaries of the land or property.
7.The Department told us that entities registered in UK Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories that own property in the UK will be required to register details of their beneficial owners with Companies House, and that all Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories have committed to introduce publicly accessible registers of beneficial ownership. According to BEIS, Gibraltar introduced a public register in 2020, with the remaining registers expected to be introduced by the end of 2023, in line with the Government’s call to make beneficial ownership transparency a global norm by 2023.