The development of a new system to host the registers for domestic and non-domestic Energy Performance Certificates has been commissioned by the Scottish Government Directorate for the Built Environment, Building Standards Division and the Energy Efficiency and Low Carbon Economy Unit.

The implementation of the new system will help to address Scottish and Government legislative requirements for climate change as detailed in:

— recommendations contained in Section 63 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (CCSA) that allows regulations for the establishment of a register for existing non-domestic buildings

— EU Directive 2010/31/EU on energy performance of buildings (recast)

— the requirement for a new register as per Regulation 10 of the Energy Performance Building (Scotland) Regulations 2008

— the requirement to capture and maintain Green Deal finance and related measures in an Energy Performance Certificate to support the Green Deal initiative established by the UK Energy Bill 2010/11. This will also incorporate the data required to be stored in relation to the new Energy Company Obligation which will come into force at the same time as the Green Deal.

The Energy Saving Trust (EST) is responsible for the management of the current domestic EPC register in Scotland. To date there has not been a register for non-domestic buildings in Scotland. EST has been asked to manage the delivery of the new system to host both registers on behalf of the Scottish Government.

EST requires a specialist IT contractor to design and build a new on-line system that will host domestic and non-domestic Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) registers for Scotland. An initial phase has been undertaken to gather detailed business requirements and non-functional requirements from key stakeholders. These requirements are to be validated and incorporated into a full system design specification that the contractor will use to build and implement the new system using established industry-wide best practices. The new system will also provide functionality to support the forthcoming Green Deal and Energy Company Obligations for Scotland. Data will also need to be migrated from the current domestic EPC register that will need to be decommissioned. All development and testing must be completed by the 1st of September to enable the new system to be fully operational by the 1st of October.