The Energy Company Obligation is a UK Government scheme. They have advised us that external wall insulation (EWI) was installed in 421 properties in Scotland as part of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO4) and Great British Insulation (GBIS) schemes. In Scotland a Building Warrant is required before external wall insulation can be installed, this provides additional safeguards compared with England and Wales.

Where these EWI installs have subsequently been audited by the UK Government, they have not reported any serious faults (e.g. health and safety risks due to poor ventilation). They reported non-compliance with scheme requirements as being 34% of the audited EWI cases in Scotland.

We anticipate that a small number of Scottish homes may have been affected by poor quality installation of external wall insulation with ECO4 and GBIS finance. We have requested that the UK Government provides further information about these cases to relevant local authorities and the Scottish Government.

The UK Government report that internal wall insulation (IWI) was installed in around 6,100 properties in Scotland as part of these schemes. This work does not normally require a Building Warrant but local authority consents may be required in some cases. The UK Government has advised us about 410 properties with IWI that were referred for auditing (i.e. this includes cases where a concern had already been raised). Non-compliance was reported in 31% of audited IWI cases. The UK Government reports that serious problems were identified in 12 properties and that all of these were successfully remediated.

The number of Scottish properties affected by poor quality or faulty installation of internal wall insulation is likely to be higher. However it seems likely that these issues have affected a minority of homes and can be successfully remediated in most cases. We have requested that further information about these properties continues to be provided to relevant local authorities and the Scottish Government.