Recommendation RHI-44: NIAO Progress Assessment Role
From The Report of the Independent Public Inquiry into the Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme, published 13 March 2020.
Recommendation
The recommendations for change made here, to the extent they are adopted, will take time to implement; they may indeed not even be sufficient to address the range of shortcomings revealed by the Inquiry. The Inquiry therefore recommends a role in future for the Northern Ireland Audit Office in assessing and validating the extent of progress in implementing the lessons learned from the NI RHI scheme and implementing these recommendations, including reporting on such progress periodically to the Northern Ireland Assembly and the people of Northern Ireland. The Inquiry further recommends that the Northern Ireland Audit Office is provided with sufficient additional resources so as to enable it to perform such a role.
In brief (written by this site)
The Inquiry asked the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) to assess and report progress. In October 2024, it stated that its second report fulfilled the recommendation to assess and validate progress in implementing lessons learned from the scheme and to report periodically (Northern Ireland Audit Office, Oct 2024). Previously, in March 2022, it published its first update report assessing and validating progress in line with the recommendation, following a request to monitor implementation and report findings to the Northern Ireland Assembly and the public (Northern Ireland Audit Office response, Mar 2022).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 1 Oct 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
As a mechanism for avoiding a similar outcome in this case, the C&AG was asked to monitor and, as necessary, pursue the effective implementation of this Inquiry’s recommendations and report its findings to the Northern Ireland Assembly and the people of Northern Ireland.
1.25 In line with that recommendation, this first update report assesses and validates “the extent of progress in implementing the lessons learned from the NI RHI scheme and implementing these recommendations”.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: These are the words of the Northern Ireland Audit Office in its first report on progress with the Inquiry's recommendations, dated 22 March 2022 (paragraphs 1.24 and 1.25); "that recommendation" is this one. The report states no position of acceptance or rejection, so the site records the response as noted. The Executive's response does not answer this recommendation in its summary table. The Audit Office's news release of 15 October 2024 says this report "was published in June 2022"; the report's cover, and the folder its PDF is filed in on the Audit Office's website (2022-03), give March 2022, and the site uses the cover's date.
Delivery
NI Audit Office says completed (15 October 2024)
The report fulfils the Inquiry’s recommendation that the NI Audit Office (NIAO) assesses and validates progress in implementing the lessons learned from the RHI Scheme, and that it reports on such progress periodically.
From: NI Audit Office publishes second report on implementation of RHI Inquiry recommendations
Site note: The Northern Ireland Audit Office's news release on its second report. Recommendation 44 is addressed to the Audit Office, so this is the addressee's own statement on it.
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- NI Audit Office
Response, delivery statement