ESOS enforcement · Part 8
ESOS penalties: the table, the calculation, and the gap
ESOS penalties are the five civil penalties in Part 8 of the ESOS Regulations 2014, each a maximum the regulator may reduce, and each able to be published.
The headline ESOS fines are £90,000 for failing to undertake the assessment and £45,000 for failing to notify, once 80 working days of daily penalty are added.
Inside those maxima, the amount is set by the Environment Agency’s published method.
The table
Five civil penalties, and publication for each
Part 8 was read in full: Chapter 1 (regulations 39 to 42) is the machinery, Chapter 2 (regulations 43 to 47) the penalties.
The amounts are fixed maxima with downward discretion.
| Reg | Failure | Initial maximum | Daily element | Highest total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43 | To notify the scheme administrator | £5,000 | £500 per working day, up to 80 | £45,000 |
| 44 | To keep the evidence pack | £5,000 + the cost of confirming compliance | None | — |
| 45 | To undertake an ESOS assessment | £50,000 | £500 per working day, up to 80 | £90,000 |
| 46 | To comply with a compliance, enforcement or penalty notice | £5,000 | £500 per working day, up to 80 | £45,000 |
| 47 | A false or misleading statement | £50,000 | None | £50,000 |
Regulation 44 carries no daily penalty, and regulation 47 carries none either, though summaries often add one.
Regulation 45 was narrowed by SI 2026/701 so that it does not apply where the ISO 50001 route or the zero-energy route applies; the consolidated text on legislation.gov.uk has been slow to show the change.
The penalties are created by the Regulations themselves, and the regulator imposes them by penalty notice under regulation 39.
The daily element
How £500 a day becomes £40,000
For regulations 43, 45 and 46 the regulator may add £500 for each working day the failure continues, up to 80 working days.
A working day excludes weekends, Christmas Day, Good Friday and bank holidays, under regulation 2, so 80 working days is about sixteen weeks.
For a missed notification the daily element runs from the day after the penalty notice is served until notification is made; for a missed assessment, from the day after the compliance notice until the breach is remedied.
The Environment Agency’s guidance drops the word “working” from all three caps; the instrument has it.
The cap is also why prompt remedy matters most in the first weeks after a notice.
The calculation
How the Environment Agency sets the amount
The method is in Annex 2 of the Agency’s enforcement and sanctions policy, which applies to the climate change schemes, ESOS among them.
Step 3 multiplies the statutory maximum by factors for culpability and size: for a large organisation found negligent, 0.3 for the starting point and 0.14 to 0.75 for the range.
Large, for this purpose, means turnover of £50 million and over, measured for ESOS at the level of the participant.
Step 4 moves the figure within the range for aggravating and mitigating factors, which in the Agency’s own ESOS example produced £47,250.
That £12,600 to £67,500 is a band in a worked illustration, not a record of what anyone paid, and it is often misreported as the highest ESOS fine.
For a first-time participant that fails to audit, section D2.3 of the annex says the Agency will normally cap the initial penalty at £5,000, in that first compliance period only.
| Step | ESOS worked example — failure to audit |
|---|---|
| 1 · Statutory maximum | £50,000 + £40,000 daily = £90,000 |
| 2 · Nature of breach | One the Agency will normally penalise (§D2.4) |
| 3 · Culpability and size | Large, negligent: starting point £27,000; range £12,600 to £67,500 |
| 4 · Adjustments | Final penalty £47,250 |
In practice
What enforcement has actually produced
The one ESOS penalty appeal reported by the First-tier Tribunal, UKFTT/GRC/2022/507, reproduces the Agency’s penalty notice step by step.
The Agency imposed £57,375 for failure to undertake an ESOS assessment; the tribunal found its approach unreasonable, allowed the appeal and substituted £28,688.
The band in that 2022 notice ran to £67,000, where the current annex’s example gives £67,500, a difference between two versions of the method rather than an error in either.
The GOV.UK ESOS overview points to a summary of penalties imposed in England; it is not a UK-wide record, and no ESOS-specific penalty total is published.
The Phase 3 published data on data.gov.uk is a different thing: notifications, action plans and progress updates, not penalties.
The gap
Action plans and updates: no penalty applies
Part 8 names the duties it penalises, and regulations 34A and 34B are not among them.
So the absence of a penalty for a missed action plan or progress update is in the statute, not only in the regulator’s forbearance.
The Phase 4 guidance confirms regulators “will not take enforcement action or issue a penalty relating to the non-submission of an action plan or progress update”, and that the failure will be published.
The duty itself stands, and it is set out on the ESOS action plan.
A regulator can serve an enforcement notice requiring an action plan.
Ignoring that notice is a regulation 46 failure: up to £5,000 plus £500 per working day, for up to 80.
Publication
The publication penalty, and how long it lasts
Any of the five penalties can be accompanied by a publication penalty under regulation 41.
It lets the regulator publish the name of the responsible undertaking and, where different, the participant, the requirement breached and the amount, for at least a year.
The Agency’s enforcement and sanctions policy says published details are normally available for 12 months.
Publication of penalties is separate from the routine publication of action plans and progress updates, which happens to every participant that files them.
A notification is also a statement, and Phase 4 puts more figures into it, including the savings achieved, so the regulation 47 penalty for a false or misleading statement matters more than it did.
Before a penalty
Notices, regulators, and what to do if you are late
The Regulations give the regulator three kinds of notice: a compliance notice (regulation 35), an enforcement notice (regulation 38) and a penalty notice (regulation 39).
Failing to comply with any of them is the regulation 46 penalty, which is what gives an enforcement notice teeth where no other penalty exists.
The regulator is decided by the registered office: the Environment Agency in England, Natural Resources Wales, SEPA in Scotland and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, with the Secretary of State for offshore undertakings.
The Phase 4 guidance asks anyone who expects to miss 5 December 2027 to follow its enforcement section and contact the ESOS helpdesk.
The law behind the table is the 2014 Regulations, as amended by SI 2023/1182 and SI 2026/701.
Whether a duty is compulsory at all is on is ESOS mandatory; what the audit must contain is on ESOS energy audits; the Phase 4 changes on ESOS Phase 3 vs Phase 4; and the deadlines on ESOS Phase 4 requirements.
Frequently asked
ESOS penalties: questions people ask
What penalties do companies face for non-compliance with ESOS?
Part 8 of the ESOS Regulations 2014 sets five civil penalties: failure to notify, up to £5,000 plus £500 per working day for up to 80 working days; failure to keep records, £5,000 plus the regulator's cost of confirming compliance; failure to undertake an ESOS assessment, up to £50,000 plus £500 per working day for up to 80 working days; failure to comply with a notice, up to £5,000 plus £500 per working day for up to 80 working days; and a false or misleading statement, up to £50,000. Each can be published.
What is the maximum ESOS fine?
For failure to undertake an ESOS assessment, £90,000: £50,000 plus £500 for each of up to 80 working days.
For failure to notify, £45,000 on the same construction.
A false or misleading statement carries up to £50,000 with no daily element. These are maxima; the regulator may set less.
How does the Environment Agency calculate an ESOS penalty?
Its enforcement policy, Annex 2, uses four steps: the statutory maximum; whether the breach is one it will normally penalise; a starting point and range from culpability and organisation size; and adjustment for aggravating and mitigating factors.
In its own ESOS worked example, a large organisation found negligent in failing to audit has a starting point of £27,000 in a range of £12,600 to £67,500, and a final penalty of £47,250.
Is there a penalty for missing the ESOS action plan or a progress update?
No. Part 8 does not name regulation 34A or 34B.
The Environment Agency says it will not take enforcement action or issue a penalty for non-submission, and publishes the failure instead.
An enforcement notice requiring the plan, if ignored, would be penalised under regulation 46.
Has anyone actually been fined under ESOS?
Yes.
The one ESOS penalty appeal reported by the First-tier Tribunal, UKFTT/GRC/2022/507, concerned a penalty of £57,375 for failure to undertake an ESOS assessment; the tribunal found the Environment Agency's approach unreasonable and substituted £28,688.
The Agency publishes a summary of penalties imposed in England.
Are ESOS penalties lower for first-time participants?
For failure to undertake an energy audit, yes, by policy: the Environment Agency says that in the compliance period in which an undertaking first enters ESOS it will normally impose a lower initial penalty of up to £5,000.
From the next compliance period it normally uses the statutory maximum.
The statute itself is unchanged.
What does ESOS publication mean?
A publication penalty lets the regulator publish the undertaking's name and, where different, the participant's, the requirement breached and the amount, for at least a year. It can attach to any of the five civil penalties.
Who enforces ESOS penalties in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
The regulator follows the registered office: SEPA in Scotland, Natural Resources Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, with the Environment Agency in England and the Secretary of State for offshore undertakings.
The penalties are the same Part 8 penalties.
Sources
Primary sources
Every figure, date and status on this page traces to the instrument’s owner.
Secondary commentary is never the source for a number.
- legislation.gov.ukESOS Regulations 2014, Part 8 (regulations 39–47) — civil penalties
The five penalties and publication; regulations 34A and 34B are named nowhere in Part 8.
- legislation.gov.ukESOS Regulations 2014, regulation 45 — failure to undertake an ESOS assessment
Read with SI 2026/701 reg 29, which substitutes “except where regulation 33(3) or 33A applies”.
- legislation.gov.ukESOS Regulations 2014, regulation 2 — interpretation (notices, working day)
Compliance notice (reg 35), enforcement notice (reg 38), penalty notice (reg 39), publication penalty (reg 41); “working day”.
- legislation.gov.ukThe Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/1643), revised text
In force 17 July 2014. Consolidation of the 2026 amendments is partial — read with SI 2026/701.
- legislation.gov.ukThe Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/1182)
- legislation.gov.ukThe Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/701)
Made 23 June 2026, in force 22 July 2026: the Phase 4 changes. Made under Energy Act 2023 ss.254–260 and 263.
- Environment AgencyEnforcement and sanctions policy, Annex 2: climate change schemes — civil penalties
Updated 10 October 2025. Step 3 bands and the ESOS worked example; §D2.3 new entrants.
- Environment AgencyEnforcement and sanctions policy (the policy root)
Publication: name, requirement breached, amount; normally available for 12 months.
- First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber)ESOS penalty appeal, UKFTT/GRC/2022/507
EA penalty £57,375 for failure to undertake an ESOS assessment; the tribunal substituted £28,688.
- Environment AgencyHow to comply with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) phase 4
Published 30 July 2026. A restatement of the Regulations, never the source over them; where it and the SI differ, the SI governs.
- Environment AgencyComply with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) phase 4 — publication page
- Environment Agency / GOV.UKEnergy savings opportunity scheme (ESOS): find out if you qualify and how to comply
Rewritten for Phase 4 on 2 September 2026; seven approved lead assessor registers; PAS 51215-1 and -2:2025 voluntary.
- Environment Agency / data.gov.ukEnergy Savings Opportunity Scheme — Phase 3 published data
Notifications, action plans and first progress updates. Not a penalty register.
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