Posted: 22 December, 2011. Written by Ciaran Burns
On Wednesday 21 December Mr Justice Mitting upheld an appeal brought to the High Court over the Government’s handling of the feed-in tariff, stating that it was “legally flawed”.
The court agreed that proposals to cut feed-in tariff payments for any solar scheme completed after December 12 - 11 days before the official consultation closed - were unlawful.
The implications of this decision mean that the pre 12th December tariffs cannot be changed until after the full parliamentary process – i.e. an 8 week consultation, followed by a review of the responses and then a 40 day period before the legislation takes effect. This is unless the Government wins an appeal.
Government was not given leave to appeal, but if it wants to make a case it must put that forward by 4th January 2012.
More information please see the Department of Energy and Climate Change and Energy Saving Trust websites.