Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting
We have expanded our Greenhouse verification services to cover SECR. Our verification services ensure that the data you put into the public domain is complete, accurate and transparent. Lucideon verifiers are experienced carbon and energy auditors and not just cross trained financial auditors - they therefore understand your operations and measurement/monitoring processes (invoices, meter reads, fuel cards, etc.).
Our services are tailored to suit your needs – whether you are an existing verification client who just needs to “top up” their reporting to cover SECR or you are being captured by this reporting requirement for the first time.
How does SECR work?
There is a new mandatory reporting requirement; Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting. Regulations require all "large" companies (threshold goes down to 250 employees) to include energy usage and carbon emissions data in their annual accounts filed at Companies House. Although this doesn’t require mandatory independent verification it would be advisable for reporters to have it checked out before going public. If you are one of these organizations, we can verify your reports and evidence pack before submission to the Authority, to ensure that they are correct. This applies to company financial years beginning on or after the 1st April 2019.
The Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) scheme entered into force in April 2019, affecting two previous schemes:
1) CRC energy efficiency scheme - replacement
2) Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting (MCR) scheme that applies to quoted firms - subsumes this scheme.
A link to the regulations (Statutory instrument) is here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/1155/contents/made
Who does this apply to?
All large companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) as defined under the Companies Act 2006 as meeting two of the three conditions below:
- more than 250 employees
- annual turnover greater than £36m
- annual balance sheet total greater than £18m.
The government calculates that 11,900 companies will be required to report on their carbon emissions under these new regulations.
Note that the eligibility requirements are slightly different to those under the ESOS requirements. They both apply to roughly the same number of firms, although they do not wholly overlap, which may create some confusion. Some firms will be covered by one but not the other..
Companies using 40,000 kWh or less of energy in the 12-month reporting period will be exempt, as will those unquoted companies where 'it is not practical to obtain information'.
What information businesses must publish?
Businesses must publish the following information in their Directors' Report for each financial year:
- their UK energy use (Namely Gas, Electricity and Transport(Road, rail, air, shipping))
- the associated scope 1 and scope 2 emissions
- an emissions intensity metric
Reporting on Scope 3 emissions (e.g. supply chain) is optional.