Scottish Ministers have used SSI 2026/322, the Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2026, to make a narrow but important adjustment to the EPC framework. The text approved by the Scottish Parliament does two things: it postpones the point at which the 2025 regulations come fully into force, and it raises the fee that may be charged for entering energy performance data onto the register. The instrument was made on 28 October 2026 and applies in Scotland only. Regulation 3 took effect on 30 October 2026, while regulation 2 took effect on 31 October 2026. The preamble states that the Scottish Ministers acted under powers in the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 and the Energy Act 2023.
The biggest policy change is the timetable reset. The Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2025 were due to come fully into force on 31 October 2026. SSI 2026/322 moves that date to 30 April 2028, giving the existing framework an extra 18 months. The same approach runs through the transitional text. Dates in regulation 36 on approved organisations and accreditation schemes shift from 30 and 31 October 2026 to 29 and 30 April 2028. In regulation 38, the relevant period is also pushed back, with 31 October 2027 becoming 30 April 2029 and 31 October 2031 becoming 30 April 2033. In practice, the Scottish Government has delayed not only commencement but the wider transition window around it.
The immediate operational change concerns register fees. From 31 October 2026, the substituted regulation 10A allows the keeper of a register to charge £6.00 for entering data from which an energy performance certificate and recommendations report for a dwelling may be produced. For a building or building unit other than a dwelling, the permitted fee is £15.50. The explanatory note states that the previous figures were £2.60 for dwellings and £12.10 for other properties. The charging power is not universal: the new regulation says it applies only where the keeper of the register is a Scottish public authority. That distinction matters for anyone reading the fee change as a general market-wide tariff, because the text is narrower than that.
SSI 2026/322 also replaces regulations 10 and 10A of the 2008 regulations with a fuller restatement of how the register works. The new text says there must be one or more registers of energy performance data from which an energy performance certificate and a recommendations report may be produced, and that each register must be maintained by a keeper. It also allows separate registers for different purposes or different classes of buildings or building units. For assessors and approved organisations, the compliance point is clear in the legislation. Where a member of an approved organisation issues an energy performance certificate or recommendations report, that person must ensure the underlying energy performance data is sent to the relevant register before the document is issued. Once entered, the data must sit under a unique reference and cannot be altered, except where Green Deal information is updated in line with the framework regulations.
The retention rule is also explicit. The substituted regulation 10 requires energy performance data to remain on the register for at least 10 years from the date it is entered. That gives the register a longer-lived evidential function than a simple point-in-time certificate issue, and it helps explain why the instrument spends time on the structure and integrity of the data rather than only on fees. For practitioners, the practical reading is that the back-office rules remain tightly controlled even as the larger 2025 reform package is delayed. The regulations preserve the need for data submission before document issue, preserve long retention, and preserve limited amendment rights. The main substantive change in this part of the instrument is the amount that may be charged for data entry by a qualifying public-sector keeper.
What the amendment does not do is just as important. It does not cancel the 2025 regulations; it defers their full commencement. It does not rewrite the territorial scope beyond Scotland. It does not create a broad power to edit registered EPC data after submission, aside from the specific Green Deal exception already set out in the text. It also does not, on its face, change every front-end obligation that property owners, buyers, sellers or landlords may already recognise from the existing EPC system. Read plainly, the instrument is targeted at implementation timing and register administration. The immediate legal effect falls most directly on public register arrangements, approved organisations and the timetable for the 2025 regime.
For property professionals, local authorities and compliance teams, the dates now matter more than the politics around them. The switch to the fully commenced 2025 framework is no longer 31 October 2026 but 30 April 2028. The fee change took effect a day later than the rest of the instrument, on 31 October 2026, and the longer saving and transitional periods now run out to 30 April 2029 and 30 April 2033 in the cases identified by regulation 38. Signed by Stephen Gethins on behalf of the Scottish Ministers at St Andrew’s House on 28 October 2026, SSI 2026/322 is a technical instrument with real operational weight. In plain terms, Scotland has kept the current EPC architecture in place for longer, while increasing the charge that a Scottish public authority may levy to place energy performance data on the register.