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RHI-4

Quality of Ministerial Advice

RHI Inquiry · The Report of the Independent Public Inquiry into the Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme · Issued 13 March 2020 · Addressed to: Northern Ireland Executive

Government responseNorthern Ireland Executive: Accepted (Oct 2021)

DeliveryNorthern Ireland Executive says in progress (Feb 2025)Department of Finance says in progress (Mar 2024)

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation

A lesson from the RHI experience is that action is needed to raise and sustain the quality of advice to Ministers and the clarity with which it is expressed. Options must be properly evaluated and, at the point of formal decisions, advice must be clear, comprehensive and impartial. Risks should be clearly and realistically stated, with an account of the implementation challenges and how the policy will work on the ground. In particular, when relevant because of the nature of the policy, Ministers should be informed at the outset of how the initiative may be suspended or closed if it gets into difficulty. Ministers should in future expect, and Departments should put in place systems to ensure, that officials provide regular and accurate information about how implementation is working in practice, especially when a third party is involved in implementing and/or administering a scheme or policy.

RHI Inquiry, The Report of the Independent Public Inquiry into the Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme · 13 Mar 2020 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

In February 2025, the Northern Ireland Executive reported that implementation remained in progress, stating that officials would provide policy advice to HOPP on addressing the recommendation by March 2025 (Northern Ireland Executive, Feb 2025). In October 2024, the Northern Ireland Audit Office found that the recommendation was likely to be fully implemented based on planned action, but considered it essential that the civil service demonstrate that the Making a Difference policy guide had become the standard approach, noting that no timescale had been set to scope out a delivery control mechanism (Northern Ireland Audit Office, Oct 2024).

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.

About this summary
This recommendation asks for cultural or behavioural change, which is difficult to verify from published sources alone. The record above reflects policy commitments rather than measured outcomes.

Government response

●Northern Ireland Executive · Accepted · 7 Oct 2021

Words of: Northern Ireland Executive, Executive Response to the RHI Inquiry Report Recommendations and Action Plan, Annex A, 7 October 2021

These recommendations can be accepted in full.

Some elements are addressed in existing guidance, including:
• the role of the Senior Responsible Officer in respect of the delivery of a project or programme;
• existing Business Case guidance;
• the obligation upon civil servants under their Code of Ethics to provide objective and impartial advice, and to give Ministers all the facts;
• departmental systems to set priorities and targets (consistent with the PfG) to report progress against key targets.

They have been addressed in work to date through:
• the review of recruitment and selection policies and practices as part of the NICS People Strategy;
• the Review of Business Case and Expenditure Approval processes.

Further work is required to:
• reflect key principles in the guidance relating to policy making, Business Cases, Project Management including GatewayTM guidance, and risk-management;
• address the knowledge and skills of those in policy roles, including training with an emphasis on modelling and testing, by conducting a fundamental review of the Practical Guide to Policy Making through the Policy Champions’’ Network, and follow through to the Policy Skills Guide and policy-skills training offer.;
• embed NICS ethical standards;
• ensure financial and non-financial performance target reporting to the Minister, including outside the budget period.

Response document: Executive Response to the RHI Inquiry Report Recommendations and Action Plan: Annex A Summary of Recommendations and Response

Site note: These are the Northern Ireland Executive's words from Annex A, "Summary of Recommendations and Response", published on this page with the Executive Response to the RHI Inquiry Report Recommendations and Action Plan on 7 October 2021, the day the Executive agreed it. The Department of Finance publishes the response, but it is the Executive's, so the site records it under the Executive. The annex is a PDF that the publisher asks automated readers not to fetch, so the site cites the page that links it.

Site note: Annex A gives this passage once, for the recommendations under its heading "PROFESSIONAL SKILLS: POLICY SKILLS": recommendations 1, 2, 3 and 4. It is the Executive's response to the group, not to this recommendation alone.

Delivery

●Northern Ireland Executive says in progress · 19 Feb 2025

Officials will provide policy advice to HOPP on how to address this by March 2025

From: Implementation of the Recommendations of the RHI Inquiry (publication page for three documents)

Site note: This page publishes three monitoring tables: the Department of Finance's of 1 September 2023 and 14 March 2024, and the Executive's table of 19 February 2025 of commitments on the remaining recommendations. None of the three lists every recommendation. The row carries the table's own cell for this recommendation: the "Updates" column, or where that is empty in 2023 the "Status of further work" column, and in 2025 the "Commitment" column. The tables are PDFs that the publisher asks automated readers not to fetch, so the site cites the page that links them.

Site note: In the Executive's table of 19 February 2025, recommendations 2 and 4 share one "Commitment" cell, so the same words are recorded on both.

●Department of Finance says in progress · 14 Mar 2024

Making a Difference was published 1 February 2023. RHI recommendations were referenced in the launch presentation to 900+ policy officials

From: Implementation of the Recommendations of the RHI Inquiry (publication page for three documents)

Site note: This page publishes three monitoring tables: the Department of Finance's of 1 September 2023 and 14 March 2024, and the Executive's table of 19 February 2025 of commitments on the remaining recommendations. None of the three lists every recommendation. The row carries the table's own cell for this recommendation: the "Updates" column, or where that is empty in 2023 the "Status of further work" column, and in 2025 the "Commitment" column. The tables are PDFs that the publisher asks automated readers not to fetch, so the site cites the page that links them.

Site note: In the Executive's table of 19 February 2025, recommendations 2 and 4 share one "Commitment" cell, so the same words are recorded on both.

Earlier statements on delivery (0)

●Department of Finance · 1 Sep 2023

Making a Difference was published 1 February. RHI recommendations were referenced in the launch presentation to 900+ policy officials.

From: Implementation of the Recommendations of the RHI Inquiry (publication page for three documents)

Site note: This page publishes three monitoring tables: the Department of Finance's of 1 September 2023 and 14 March 2024, and the Executive's table of 19 February 2025 of commitments on the remaining recommendations. None of the three lists every recommendation. The row carries the table's own cell for this recommendation: the "Updates" column, or where that is empty in 2023 the "Status of further work" column, and in 2025 the "Commitment" column. The tables are PDFs that the publisher asks automated readers not to fetch, so the site cites the page that links them.

Site note: In the Executive's table of 19 February 2025, recommendations 2 and 4 share one "Commitment" cell, so the same words are recorded on both.

What other bodies have found

In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.

●NI Audit Office · 15 Oct 2024

The recommendation is likely to be fully implemented based on the planned action.

In order for this recommendation to be regarded as Implemented, our assessment is that it is essential that the NICS is able to demonstrate that rigorous and comprehensive implementation of the Making a Difference policy guide has become the standard approach in use, for example, through a formally reported review process.

In response, DoF has told us that it will take steps to fully address the Inquiry’s recommendation in this area, and it will commission advice on how the status of Making a Difference policy making guidance might be formalised – this has now commenced. Further to this, work is also to be undertaken which will scope out how a control mechanism for the delivery of the policy function, reflecting Making a Difference, might be implemented, in appropriate cases, akin to the Gateway process for projects or business case processes for expenditure – the Department has confirmed that, as yet no timescale has been set out.

From: Northern Ireland Non-Domestic RHI Scheme: Progressing implementation of the Public Inquiry recommendations - 2nd Report (Appendix 4)

Site note: This is the Northern Ireland Audit Office's assessment, from Appendix 4 of its second report on the Inquiry's recommendations (15 October 2024), the column "2024 NIAO Assessment". The Audit Office monitors implementation at the Inquiry's request; its assessment is shown beside the Executive's own account and does not set the recommendation's status.

How this page is built

The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.