Renewables Obligation (Scotland) Order 2009 - inflation indexation changes: equality impact assessment

Executive summary

The Renewables Obligation (Scotland) Amendment Order 2026 amends the index used to make inflationary adjustments to the Renewables Obligation Scotland (ROS) scheme from RPI to CPI. This is expected to provide overall savings within the system, which may result in marginal reductions to consumer bills.

This follows a joint consultation between the Scottish Government, UK Government and Northern Ireland Executive, which sought views on the principles and practical issues of making the change from RPI to CPI. The consultation ran from 31 October to 2 December 2025.

The measures outlined in the SSI represent a technical change to a support scheme for renewable energy generators and the Scottish Government does not consider them to have any equality impacts. An Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) has been undertaken to consider the potential impacts of the measures on people with protected characteristics, as defined in the Equality Act 2010.

Overall, the amendment to the ROS promotes equality by ensuring that the financial burden of funding industry support schemes is proportionate, fair, and kept as low as reasonably practicable for all consumers.