CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme: account or organisation changes
How to appoint an agent or account representative, make changes to your CRC Registry account and changes you need to tell us about.
The CRC Energy Efficiency scheme will close once the current compliance year has ended on 31 March 2019. Participants in CRC must carry out their compliance actions for the current year. They will also need to meet certain record keeping requirements until March 2025. See the CRC closure guidance for more information.
CRC: appointing account representatives
When you registered for Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) you provided contact details for your nominated points of contact in your organisation. These are called your authorised contacts. They are:
- a senior officer – a director or chief executive with authority to act on behalf of an organisation or group
- a primary contact and a secondary contact – authorised by the senior officer to act on behalf of the organisation
- a contact for invoices
You can also appoint account representatives to carry out the same activities as the primary and secondary contacts. You can do this after you have registered.
If you want to appoint account representatives, you need to provide the Environment Agency with their name and contact details. They will carry out checks on the business addresses provided and will send a password to your proposed account representatives at the address supplied.
The Environment Agency will also send a letter containing a unique password to your senior officer for them to pass to the account representatives. This ensures that they are authorised to act for your organisation.
The account representatives will need to enter these passwords when accessing your CRC Registry account for the first time.
CRC: appointing an agent
If you employ a consultant or third party and you want them to access your CRC account, one of your authorised contacts can nominate an agent using the CRC Registry.
You can only nominate an agent who has already registered and enrolled in the CRC Registry and can provide you with their agent ID number.
The screenshot guide Registering and enrolling as an agent has information for agents.
CRC Registry: changing your account details
Your existing authorised contacts can update contact details in your CRC Registry account. These are your:
- primary contact
- secondary contact
- account representative (if you have appointed any)
- agent (if you have appointed one)
Changing your name and address
For your highest UK parent and participant equivalents (PE) your authorised contacts can update:
- name
- trading name
- address
- SIC code
They can also update the name and address of any overseas parent.
To make these changes they need to:
- Log in to your CRC Registry account.
- Click on ‘phase 2’ in the box called ‘phase’ on the home page.
- Click on ‘change parent and/or participant equivalent’ in the box called ‘registration’.
- Click on the name of the particular PE or parent whose details they want to amend.
Changing primary member of a group
If your organisation is part of a group, your primary member is the organisation that you nominated to be responsible for managing your group’s compliance with CRC. They are also known as your compliance account holder.
To change your primary member, one of your authorised contacts should:
- Log in to your registry account.
- Click on ‘phase 2’ in the box called ‘phase’ on the home page.
- Click on ‘change parent and/or participant equivalent’ in the box called ‘registration’.
- Select from the drop down list the name of the PE or parent they would like to be the new primary member.
If they want to select an organisation that is not a PE or parent as the new primary member they need to follow steps 1 to 3 above and then:
- Select ‘other’.
- Click ‘next’.
- Enter the details of the new organisation
The Environment Agency will carry out due diligence checks on this organisation if they have not already done so.
Adding a new contact
Authorised contacts can add a new contact to your account by clicking the ‘manage contacts’ button on the home page and selecting the ‘add new contact’ button.
The role must then be allocated to the new contact by clicking on the appropriate phrase from the home page and selecting the option ‘assign contact roles’ in the registration section.
The registry will generate a PIN which will be sent to the senior officer to pass to the new contact.
You cannot add a new contact by simply editing an existing contact person’s details. This will not generate the new reference number or PIN and your original contact will no longer be able to access the CRC Registry.
CRC Registry: lost ID or password
You have 2 options if you lose your log on ID or password.
Option 1: request a reset of your password
You can request a reset of your password on the CRC Registry system. To do this, go to the home page of the CRC Registry and use either your:
- CRC ID
- email address and participant CRC registration number - which uses this format CRCxxxxxxx
If you do not have a record of your ID or CRC registration number follow option 2 below.
Option 2: request an access reset
The CRC helpdesk can reset the access by removing and re-adding contact details. They will need written authorisation from your senior officer to do this. This could be an email from the senior officer’s email address held on our records.
Email the CRC helpdesk - CRCHelp@environment-agency.gov.uk
CRC: changes to group organisational structures
If you are a primary member that reports on behalf of a group of undertakings, you need to tell the CRC team at the Environment Agency about certain types of changes to your organisational structure.
These changes are called ‘designated changes’. You must notify the CRC team within 3 months of the change.
You cannot submit your annual report for that compliance year until you have told the CRC team about these changes and they have updated your structure on the registry.
You need to notify a designated change if you:
- buy another company that is already a CRC participant, or is a PE – a single undertaking that would have qualified for CRC in their own right
- are bought by or merge with another participant organisation
- are a PE and leave your parent group to become a stand alone organisation
You do not need to tell the CRC team about minor organisational changes, but you do need to keep a record of them in your evidence pack. These could include:
- a transfer of assets only
- selling or buying a subsidiary that is not a PE
- creating a new undertaking since the qualification year
- structural change such as outsourcing to a third party
To notify the CRC team of a designated change:
- log in to your CRC Registry account
- click on the ‘inform of designated change button’
- submit the data requested
The CRC team will amend your structure on the registry and tell you how the change affects your organisation’s CRC liabilities.
The document ‘CRC guidance for participants in phase 2’ has more information about designated changes. Annex G of this guidance provides more detailed examples.
Administration, liquidation or closing down
If your organisation, primary member, or any of its PE, goes into administration, liquidation or receivership, you must email the CRC helpdesk - CRCHelp@environment-agency.gov.uk. They will explain what you need to do to stay compliant with CRC.
Liability under CRC is on a group basis. If the primary member goes into administration, liquidation or receivership, the rest of the group still needs to comply with CRC.
One of the remaining solvent organisations in the group would need to register as the group’s new primary member. It would continue to file reports and surrender allowances on behalf of the whole group.
If there are no solvent members left in your group, email the CRC helpdesk.
Public sector changes
The merger of your organisation with another public body is a designated change and you must inform the CRC team.
If you are a government department, you need to tell the CRC team if:
- a new department is created from parts of your existing department
- part of your department is transferred to another
- your department merges with another to create a new department
- the government decides that part of your department must participate separately in CRC
Reporting supplies after your group structures change
If you have bought a participant organisation or PE, and they have become part of your participant group, you need to report their energy supplies for the whole CRC reporting year (April to March) that the change took place in. This is regardless of whether you have owned them for only part of the year.
If the PE decides to remain as a separate participant, they will continue to report their own energy supplies.
If you have sold a participant or PE, you do not need to report its energy supplies for the compliance year in which the change took place.
CRC: help and guidance
Requirements for those registered in CRC phase 2 are available in ‘CRC guidance for participants in phase 2’.
The CRC Registry screenshot guide ‘Enrolling your account and my account user guide’ will help you manage your online account.
Contact
Email the Environment Agency CRC helpdesk - CRCHelp@environment-agency.gov.uk
Call 03708 506 506 (call charges)
Last updated 12 March 2019 + show all updates
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Updated information about lost IDs or passwords for the CRC Registry and added a link to information about CRC closure.
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First published.