MCS Scheme Consultation

MCS (the Microgeneration Certification Scheme) are launching a consultation on the most major overhaul of the scheme. 

If you're a certified installer, supplier, or somehow involved it's really worth taking a look - especially on-the-ground installers/engineers as the changes would effect you most. 

Here are a few highlights from the proposal, but do read the actual document yourself, there's a link at the bottom of this page. We're keen to hear feedback from installers and engineers and will be mailing out to our trade network with more detail and asking for views. Here goes:  

Under the proposals the office-based appraisals would largely be a thing of the past - they plan to rely instead on the inspection of installations. Many installers and engineers have voiced that the office-based appraisals are onerous (especially for small teams), do not guarantee quality of work on site, and mean that some members sign up to organisations which take care of the office processes for them which adds extra expense. 

The frequency of the inspection of installations would be determined by an assigned risk level which can change over time. That might mean from > 1 inspection per technology per year if you are high risk, to 1 every 3 years if you are low risk. This risk level would be able to change over time, and certain things would trigger the level to rise, for example if the member suddenly starts installing a lot of a technology type which they'd previously installed few of. 

They plan to simplify the complaints procedure bringing it all in-house. I've certainly seen instances where a customer has complained to MCS, the certification body, RECC which seems confusing and overwhelming for the installer. 

They plan to remove the need to also register with an external schemes like RECC, and to instead implement an MCS guarantee to give final assurance to the customer. 

On applying for certification IF the installer does not meet the MCS criteria on their install then another company would come in to complete it and certify it meaning that the customer can get their grant. This is intended to make it easier for installers to find that first installation for their certification. 

We will be contacting all of the trade members of our network with a more detailed write-up and asking for feedback to help inform our response. 

You can find the MCS Scheme Consultation here, the deadline for feedback is 9am on Monday 17th July.