The Energy Act 2011 has extended the freedom of information for EPCs & DECs in England & Wales. The measure will enable buildings located in England and Wales to be openly benchmarked based on the EPC rating.

Currently the situation in England and Wales is that EPCs, Display Energy Certificates and Air Conditioning Reports are only made available to the Energy Savings Trust, Trading Standards and those with a unique document reference number for the EPC.

The decision to remove restrictions on accessing the data and make English and Welsh data on EPCs more accessible. By publicly listing ratings, similar to the CRC Energy Efficiency league table, the intention is that owners will be encouraged to improve the energy efficiency of their building stock and support the forthcoming Green Deal.

Approximately 7 million domestic & non-domestic EPCs have been lodged on the central database in England and Wales.

No central database currently exists in Scotland however at time of writing a Scottish Government consultation is open proposing to start a Scottish EPC register.