Two RHI reports scrutinising civil servants’ work seriously overdue

Last year the Department for the Economy (DfE) persuaded the then Secretary of State Karen Bradley to rush through Westminster massive cuts to subsidies which those entering the scheme had been promised would be unalterable for 20 years.

That slashed what had been a notional maximum annual subsidy per biomass boiler of £56,000 – for the few claimants running their boilers around the clock – to a maximum of £2,100, about 10 times less than comparable payments in GB and the Republic under their green heat subsidies.

Amid disquiet in the House of Lords about the apparent contradiction of what the department was claiming, there was a last-minute concession that officials would bring in an independent analyst to review their work and to advise as to whether there were genuine cases of hardship where claimants had taken on huge loans which they now cannot repay.

Last October, DfE appointed Andrew Buglass to advise on hardship, describing him as “an independent consultant with significant experience advising on energy schemes”. At the time, DfE said: “He intends to report to the department before the end of the year”.

At the same time, civil servants appointed energy consultancy Cornwall Insight to review their massively slashed tariffs. However, more than two months after that deadline there is still no sign of either report - even though there are multiple stories from RHI claimants who say they are facing financial difficulties as a result of the department’s actions.

Three sources have told the News Letter that Mr Buglass delivered his report to the department some time ago. One source said that the department refused to accept it without changes being made.

In January, the department’s DUP minister, Diane Dodds, told the Assembly that the reports should arrive “reasonably soon” and “I will share the information on their outcomes with the Committee for the Economy as soon as it is available to me”.

The RHI Inquiry heard evidence – which civil servants disputed – that the consultants’ report which they used to justify the creation of RHI in the first place had initially recommended that they should not undertake such a scheme but that they had altered their recommendations at the request of civil servants.

A DfE spokesman said: “The final report on Cornwall Insight’s tariff review was received by the department last week and is being closely considered. Andrew Buglass’ report has not been finalised. The outcomes of both pieces of work will be made public in due course.”

When asked if it was attempting to get Mr Buglass to change his report, DfE said it “has not sought, nor will it seek, to fetter Andrew Buglass’ discretion or independence in preparing his report”.

Mr Buglass declined to comment.

When asked why his report had not been finished, Mr Buglass declined to comment.

Former Stormont energy minister Lord Empey, who secured the concession that independent experts would examine the department’s work, said that many peers “feel kind of cheated on this”

He said that he had only withdrawn an amendment to the RHI legislation because of a public commitment on behalf of the department that there would be “a process designed to alleviate the distress that some legitimate users of the scheme were suffering” but there had been “foot-dragging” from the department ever since.