The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has today revealed that regulations have been before Parliament. They have provided the following overview of when the regulations will come into effect:
"The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) reform regulations were laid before Parliament on 14 March 2017. The parliamentary process usually takes 6 to 8 weeks, (with an additional two weeks due to recess falling in this period). The regulations will come into force one day after they have parliamentary and ministerial approval. BEIS is not able to specify a date for when the regulations will come into force at this stage as it is subject to parliamentary schedules and approval."
Note:
The original intention had been to specify the coming into force date within the regulations. However, BEIS needed to amend this to provide more flexibility in the timeline, so there is no longer an exact date specified. They will come into force the day after the regulations are ‘made’, which is when they have had all the necessary approvals and the Minister has signed them.
BEIS has also provided the following answers to our questions:
Why are the tariffs in the draft regulations slightly different to those specified in the Government response?
The tariffs in the draft regulations have been adjusted by the December 2016 consumer prices index (CPI). It was stated in the Government response that the tariff levels will be adjusted by this, since they will come into force in the next financial year.
How do I see what’s changed in the amended Non-domestic RHI regulations?
The Non-domestic RHI regulations have been consolidated. This means that all previous amendments as well as the most recent amendments have been merged. If you are looking for changes in a particular area it may be helpful to look at the Explanatory Note at the end of the regulations, which gives a brief summary of each regulation.
How will the next degression announcement work?
BEIS expect the RHI reform regulations to come into force before June. If this is the case, the degression announcement based on data up to 30 April 2017 will be assessed against the thresholds specified in the amended regulations for 30 April 2017. The changes to the degression methodology specified in the amended regulations will also be used. Any degressions would come into effect on 1 July 2017.
If the reform regulations do not come into force by June, degression will be assessed against the final thresholds in the existing regulations (which are the thresholds for any date after 30 January 2017), using the current methodology. However, once the amended regulations do come into force, any tariffs that have changed as part of the reform will come into effect.
