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

Key Findings

The Scottish Government invited input from organisations representing people with relevant protected characteristics with very few responses being received. Of the responses received, none identified any material equalities impacts as a result of the measures.

Through the joint consultation many, particularly community-energy respondents, raised concern around the potential reduction in revenue uplifts for community projects, which could shrink the funds available for local consumer support programmes such as for schools and help for fuel poverty. This could potentially impact on those with protected characteristics who are statistically more likely to experience fuel poverty.

However, without data on ownership structures it is challenging to quantify how many community energy projects will be affected by this amendment. In total 5 community projects were accounted for in the 247 consultation responses. The Scottish Government therefore does not consider this to represent a material impact.

The Scottish Government remains committed to working with partners to continue to grow the community energy sector and will continue to support communities through our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) and our Good Practice Principles.

We were unable to engage with any organisations representing individuals based on religion and/or belief, which represents a data gap within this EQIA. However, given the nature of the SSI, it’s minimal potential impact on consumer bills, and the fact that no action will be required from any individual, the Scottish Government does not consider that the measures will have a disproportionate impact based on religion or belief.

Overall, the measures represent a technical change to a support scheme for renewable energy generators, with any resulting adjustments to consumer bills being made automatically. Therefore, the Scottish Government does not consider the proposed amendment to the ROS to have any equality impacts.

The measures may however indirectly support equality through helping to ensure that the financial burden on consumers is fair, proportionate and kept as low as possible for consumers.