If you have missed the date for submitting an Action Plan under phase 3 of the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS), you are not alone – many UK businesses have missed the deadline. 

The deadline1 was March 5th but don’t worry – SaveMoneyCutCarbon has an expert team that can help to minimise the damage, including possible further fines, enforcement notices, and reputational risk. It’s crucial not to delay and to contact us now [details]. 

We can help overcome the issues faced by many businesses struggling to comply with ESOS regulations, not least the resource constraints and confusion over the complex requirements. 

What happens if you missed the deadline? 

The Environment Agency is the ESOS administrator and can issue three types of notice, including potentially large fines2: 

• a compliance notice – this is an information request from the regulator to the participant. The compliance notice asks for information so the regulator can determine if the participant is complying with its obligations under ESOS 

• an enforcement notice – this tells you what you must do to comply with a requirement of ESOS 

• a penalty notice – this imposes civil penalties for breaches of the 2023 amended ESOS Regulations. 

However, under the regulations the regulators are able to waive or modify enforcement action and penalties relating to non-compliance. 

There are potentially big penalties for businesses: 

Failure to notify. A business must notify the Environment Agency that it has complied with ESOS obligations and failure to do so can trigger an initial penalty of up to £5,000 (a daily penalty of up to £500 for each working day) and details of the breach will be published, which could have a serious impact on reputation.  

Failure to maintain records. The maximum penalties are: 

• an initial penalty of up to £5,000 

• a sum representing the cost to the compliance body of confirming that the responsible undertaking has complied with the scheme 

• the publication penalty 

Failure to undertake an energy audit. Penalties for failure to carry out an energy audit : 

• an initial penalty of up to £50,000 

• a daily penalty of up to £500 for each working day the responsible undertaking remains in breach, starting on the day after the service of the compliance notice, subject to a maximum of 80 working days 

• the publication penalty 

• any steps the compliance body requires the responsible undertaking to take, including conducting or completing an ESOS assessment, to remedy the breach 

• For new entrants to ESOS the penalty would be reduced to up to £5,000. 

Failure to comply with a notice. This breach means failing to provide information or take the steps required by a compliance, enforcement or penalty notice. Maximum penalties:  

• initial penalty of up to £5,000 

• daily penalty of up to £500 for each working day the responsible undertaking remains in breach, starting on the day after the service of the penalty notice, subject to a maximum of 80 working days 

Immediate actions to take 

If you have received an ESOS enforcement notice from the Environment Agency, this is signalling that you have failed to comply with obligations within the deadline period. Compliance would involve completing an energy audit and submitting reports to demonstrate energy savings efforts. 

Step 1. Time is crucial to minimise fines and other penalties so it’s very important to contact one of our qualified lead assessors (this is required by the ESOS regulations). The Environment Agency has the power to reduce or waive fines if some circumstances, so expert guidance is essential. 

Step 2. Start preparing or updating your ESOS Action Plan, which is complex and exhaustive. It’s essential to complete this as soon as possible. The plan will show4: 

• what you intend to do to reduce energy consumption 

• when you intend to do it 

• whether it was recommended through your ESOS assessment 

• what energy savings you expect to achieve over the four year period covered by the action plan 

• how you estimated these savings 

• a list of all the actions you intend to take to save energy, that you will carry out before end of the action plan period (third compliance period is 5 December 2027) 

• for each action, the month and year you intend to take the action 

• for each action, whether it was recommended by an energy audit 

• for each action, an estimate of the total energy savings you will achieve during the action plan period through carrying out the action 

• for each estimate, the source of data used for the estimate 

• a combined estimate of the total energy savings you will achieve during the action period across all actions you will take 

• a breakdown of these savings by organisational purpose (buildings, transport, industrial processes and other energy use). 

The action plan must be signed off by a board level director (or equivalent) and submitted via the compliance notification system. 

Step 3. Communicate with the Environment Agency if delays are due to legitimate reasons. 

Annual progress updates 

Following submission of the Action Plan, businesses must submit an annual progress update against the plan’s commitments in the 2 subsequent years. For the third compliance period, the first update deadline is 5 December 2025.  

Again, the update report is complex and comprehensive. It should include: 

• a list of any actions in the Action Plan not implemented during the period of 12 months covered by the progress update, where the date set for the action was during the progress update period 

• for each of the actions implemented from the plan, whether it was implemented it by the date set for it 

• for each of the actions implemented from the plan, an estimate of the total energy savings expected to have been achieved over the period of 12 months up to the progress update deadline, as a result of implementing the action 

• for each estimate, the source of data used for the estimate 

• a combined estimate of the total energy savings expected to be achieved from these actions over the period of 12 months covered by the progress update. 

The progress update must be signed off by a board level director (or equivalent), and submitted via the Manage your ESOS reporting system5. 

Bibliography 

1‘Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS)’ (Accessed May 2025) https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-savings-opportunity-scheme-esos#esos-latest-updates  

2‘Comply with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS): phase 3’ (Accessed May 2025) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/comply-with-the-energy-savings-opportunity-scheme-esos/complying-with-the-energy-savings-opportunity-scheme-esos#stages-required-for-completion-of-esos 

3Annex 2: Climate change schemes – the Environment Agency's approach to applying civil penalties (Accessed May 2025) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/environment-agency-enforcement-and-sanctions-policy/annex-2-climate-change-schemes-the-environment-agencys-approach-to-applying-civil-penalties#section-d-energy-savings-opportunity-scheme-esos 

4‘Completing the action plan (Accessed May 2025) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/comply-with-the-energy-savings-opportunity-scheme-esos/complying-with-the-energy-savings-opportunity-scheme-esos#esos-action-plan 

5 ‘Annual progress updates’ (Accessed May 2025) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/comply-with-the-energy-savings-opportunity-scheme-esos/complying-with-the-energy-savings-opportunity-scheme-esos#annual-progress-updates