All text below reproduced from Solar Trade Associations press release.
DECC was in the Court of Appeal today to request leave to appeal the High Court’s ruling of 21st December which concluded that its handling of the FITs review was unlawful. The judges failed to reach a decision today so we will not know whether DECC will be granted an appeal until next week at the earliest. DECC has just published the following statement in its website:
“The Court of Appeal has not yet decided whether to give permission for an appeal or made a judgement on the FITs case. The Court will wrap up the decision on permission for an appeal and a possible judgement if an appeal is allowed in the next few weeks. Once the outcome is known we will consider our options and make an announcement on the way forward to provide clarity to consumers and industry.”
There is considerable level of uncertainty since the FiT Consultation was launched. The legal case has exacerbated this situation. The outcomes, although still uncertain, may lead to very different tariff scenarios.
· If the Government is not granted leave to appeal, the Consultation would be declared unlawful and the cuts would be nullified. Sources in the Court indicate that this is unlikely.
· If the Government wins on appeal, we are where we were before legal action began, ie the Government will consider all responses to its consultation proposals, including the proposal that a domestic system (up to 4 kWh) can expect to earn 21p from 1st April 2012.
· If the Government does not win on appeal, then the 43p tariff could remain in place for all registered installations until the Parliamentary process has concluded (expected to be 1st April 2012, possibly earlier).
The Association will send a communication to members as soon as any announcement is made. For more details please click here