Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 28
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 National Audit Office reported that TrustMark only developed the analytical capabilities for identifying non-compliance trends in the latter half of 2024. Its funding model meant it did not have the free cashflow to develop these capabilities sooner.60 However, TrustMark told us it had been sharing the results of its audits with the Department in regular meetings since 2022, and started to identify the increased risk from 2023 into 2024, at which point it undertook more audits to better understand the level of risk.61 The Department believes that the Autumn and Winter of 2023–24 is also when the issues likely first became visible, after a ramp up of installations in the spring of 2023.62 UKAS and the Department also both told us that the intelligence that was available (for example data on installations, audit results and consumer complaints) was not being escalated or drawn together as it should have been to understand levels of 56 C&AG’s Report, paras 19 and 3.5 57 Qq 49, 52,55, 115, 116 58 C&AG’s Report, para 3.6 59 Q 89, 116, 117 60 C&AG’s Report, para 21 61 Qq 49, 52 62 Q 115 18 risk and non-compliance.63 Neither TrustMark nor DESNZ have been able to provide minutes of meetings which took place between 2022 and 2024, and the Department has written to us to say that it has no evidence that it was notified earlier than October 2024.
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.