Guidance

Energy Efficiency Taskforce: terms of reference

Updated 31 March 2023

This guidance was withdrawn on

The Energy Efficiency Task Force has been disbanded.

Background

The Chancellor announced the establishment of an Energy Efficiency Taskforce in the Autumn 2022 statement.

Purpose

The Energy Efficiency Taskforce has been established by the Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) to support a step change in the reduction of energy demand through accelerated delivery of energy efficiency across the economy.

Objectives

The taskforce will advise and work with ministers on delivery of the government’s ambition to reduce total UK energy demand by 15% from 2021 levels by 2030, across domestic and commercial buildings and industrial processes. The taskforce will have a particular focus on the role of the private sector and the stimulation of investment. Its priority areas of focus will include:

  • stimulating the supply chain to address and increase investment, reduce skills gaps, accelerate pathways to accreditation, improve product manufacturing capability, and increase the wider availability of materials required to deliver high quality upgrades at pace
  • identifying barriers and opportunities in existing market and regulatory frameworks to delivering the demand reduction ambition in a way that works for business, consumers and society in order to inform policy decisions
  • increasing consumer, public sector, and business engagement in the delivery of existing and new initiatives on energy efficiency and clean heat. This may include addressing the lack of consumer take-up or behavioural change and high attrition rates
  • working with the private sector to increase the availability of green finance linked to installation standards and quality
  • tackling different installation challenges and embedding the need for standards across differently funded markets (considering recent tragedies highlighting the risks in domestic settings)
  • working with DESNZ to gather, monitor and respond to data that shows progress towards the 15% demand reduction target

Leadership and accountability

The DESNZ Secretary of State has appointed Lord Callanan and Alison Rose DBE as co-chairs with shared overall responsibility for the taskforce and its outputs.

Lord Callanan will lead on cross-government support and ensuring necessary alignment with policy, whilst Alison Rose DBE leads external engagement and driving progress across stakeholder groups.

Approach

The co-chairs and steering group members will use their experience and contacts as leverage to bring wider stakeholders together in this aim to accelerate and increase the impact of existing delivery approaches on energy efficiency and clean heat.

Energy efficiency is in part a devolved policy, but a national priority. The taskforce will work closely with devolved administrations, drawing on experience across the UK to meet our national ambition to reduce energy demand.

The first meeting of the taskforce took place in March 2023. We will publish notes of meetings on the Energy Efficiency Taskforce page.

In future meetings, individual workstreams would be led by individuals from the taskforce as required on the agreed priority areas. Members would report back progress, initial findings and recommendations to the taskforce with input and collaboration from wider delivery and policy teams. Policy teams may be invited to meetings of the taskforce as required.

The Secretary of State will review the role of the taskforce by the end of 2023 and decide whether it should continue.

Membership

The taskforce co-chairs will be supported by a Steering Group made up of expert members drawn from the energy efficiency, clean heat and industrial process sectors alongside wider delivery bodies, business, academia, non-profits, local authorities, and the housing sector.

See the full list of Steering Group members on the Energy Efficiency Taskforce page.

Government officials will be in attendance to facilitate working group discussions and provide the secretariat function. Delivery and policy experts from DESNZ and other departments will be providing support and input as required. Expertise from outside the taskforce may also be used, from taskforce members and /or from other stakeholders.

Governance

The taskforce will be sponsored by the DESNZ Director General for Net Zero Buildings and Industry. The co-chairs are jointly responsible for the delivery of the taskforce outputs, and will be accountable to the DESNZ Secretary of State. The responsibilities and accountability of ministers and the accounting officer to Parliament are unchanged.

The co-chairs will be supported by a secretariat, based in DESNZ. The secretariat will be responsible for arranging monthly meetings, circulating papers and recording minutes of meetings.

The secretariat will be overseen by a senior civil servant (deputy director) with responsibility for ensuring the co-chairs and working groups have the resource needed, and that the meetings are effectively run, making efficient use of policy and delivery team resource, and external expertise as required.

Agendas and papers will be circulated at least 3 working days in advance of meetings. Minutes will be circulated and agreed within 2 weeks of meetings. The secretariat will also be responsible for maintaining and tracking progress of the agreed workplan.

Ways of working

When discussing and agreeing solutions, the taskforce will work within the parameters of existing government funding envelopes and policy, including the need to meet our statutory net zero and fuel poverty targets, as well as the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Where the taskforce identifies issues within the current regulatory frameworks, it should raise these with DESNZ Secretary of State and senior officials to decide, providing evidence which informs changes, so long as this supports our progress towards the above targets.

The taskforce will share progress and seek input from the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer as required, through the co-chairs.

The secretariat will monitor the effectiveness of the group in meeting its intended objectives and will regularly review with the co-chairs whether there is a need to make changes to the structure, frequency and purpose of the meetings.

Government officials will support with coordination, policy formation and analysis, working with taskforce members and their organisations. This will include facilitating the requisite join-ups in responding to the Net Zero Review led by Chris Skidmore MP, and other bodies such as the Committee on Fuel Poverty, the Climate Change Committee, the Net Zero Buildings Council and key energy efficiency, clean heat and industrial process delivery partners.