Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 17
62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency installations
Published 23 Jan 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Faulty energy efficiency installations All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Department told us that it plans to identify faulty internal wall insulation through existing audit processes. First, TrustMark and the certification bodies continue to conduct business-as-usual audits. Second, households with concerns can contact their installer and certification body, or the ECO contact centre run by Ofgem, through which calls are triaged and audits arranged when necessary.35 We pressed the Department and Ofgem on how people will know if they have a problem with their insulation, as in some cases the defects may not yet have presented themselves as problems. Ofgem told us that concerns with internal insulation tend to manifest quickly.36 We also pressed all parties to confirm that they were encouraging people to be vigilant to defects and immediately report them. The Department confirmed that this was the case, and that both it and Ofgem had been working with their respective behavioural insights teams to ensure their communications were effective.37 The Department did not outline what would happen if this approach failed to find all homes with internal wall insulation defects, or how they could persuade more people to request audits. Protecting households from the cost of repairs
From: Public Accounts Committee, 62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency installations (HC 1229), 23 January 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 7 April 2026 (deadline 23 March 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations, but disagrees with the recommendation to halt wall insulation installation without independent supervision and with the recommendation to refer fraud to the Serious Fraud Office.
- On wall insulation, it disagrees with the recommendation, noting that every household with external wall insulation under ECO4 and GBIS "is being and will be offered an on-site audit", subject to the householder accepting; internal wall insulation concerns are triaged and referred for audit where they meet "the threshold of risk factors".
- It agrees on the find-and-fix programme: TrustMark "currently intend" it to complete by May 2027, though the department states it is "unlikely" to deliver on a "significantly shorter timescale". It will update the Committee in writing every six months, first in June 2026.
- It disagrees with referring fraud across ECO to the Serious Fraud Office, stating that this "relates to an existing ongoing responsibility of the regulator", Ofgem, which can and does make referrals where appropriate.
- It agrees to publish an annual report to Parliament on retrofit schemes, with the first publication "before Autumn 2027", and "intends to consult" on the design of a reformed consumer protection system during summer 2026.