GUIDE · FOR UK SOLAR INSTALLERS · 10 MIN READ

Competent Person Scheme for Solar Installers: Which Scheme, Self-Certification and MCS

schemes authorised to self-certify microgeneration and renewables

6

schemes authorised to self-certify microgeneration and renewables

after completion to give the certificate and notice

30 days

after completion to give the certificate and notice

inspections for the first 2 years of membership

Yearly

inspections for the first 2 years of membership

you can use building control instead

Voluntary

you can use building control instead

This guide explains what a competent person scheme covers for a solar business, which one to pick, how notification works on a PV or battery job and where MCS fits.

From GOV.UK, the Building Regulations 2010 on legislation.gov.uk and Approved Document P, read on 9 November 2026. It covers England. It isn't legal advice.

What a competent person scheme is

GOV.UK puts it simply: join a competent person scheme and you can self-certify certain types of building work as an installer, instead of getting building regulations approval. Your customer doesn't have to get a council or private inspector to check the work, and there are no building control fees.

In England the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) authorises the schemes, which must follow its rules and conditions. The schemes and the work each may self-certify are set out in Schedule 3 of the Building Regulations 2010, and GOV.UK keeps the current list (last updated 17 September 2026).

Which competent person schemes cover solar PV

Two entries in Schedule 3 matter to a solar installer: paragraph 15, installing a system to produce electricity by microgeneration or from renewable sources; and paragraph 8, fixed low or extra-low voltage electrical installations in dwellings. Who may self-certify each, from GOV.UK's table:

NICEIC is a brand of Certsure LLP, and the old ELECSA website (elecsa.co.uk) now takes you to NICEIC's. If you join an electrical scheme you are also listed on the Electrical Competent Person Register, which householders use to find a registered electrician.

One trap: the Schedule 3 entry for replacing roof coverings, which NAPIT and CompetentRoofer can self-certify, says it doesn't apply to installing solar panels. A roofer's scheme won't cover the PV.

Self-certification and building regs notification

When work is done by a person registered for that type of work, regulation 20 lets the building control authority accept the installer's certificate as evidence the work complies. Within 30 days of completing the work, the installer must:

• give the occupier a copy of the certificate; and
• give the building control authority notice of the work, or the certificate itself.

The certificate is evidence, but not conclusive evidence, that the work complies, and it must say so. GOV.UK tells homeowners a registered installer will tell the local authority for them and give them a certificate within 8 weeks of completion, which shows up in solicitors' searches when they sell. Your scheme will tell you how it wants jobs logged; keep to its process and deadline.

Part P on PV and battery jobs in homes

Part P (electrical safety) covers electrical installations in dwellings, and parts outside them: Approved Document P names photovoltaic panels on roofs as an example, along with installations in outbuildings such as detached garages. Electrical work in a home is notifiable when it:

• installs a new circuit;
• replaces a consumer unit; or
• adds to or alters existing circuits in a special location (the space around a bath or shower).

So a PV or battery job that adds a circuit or swaps the consumer unit is notifiable. A CPS member registered for the work self-certifies it; anyone else uses a building control body or, since the 2013 changes, a registered third party to certify it.

Commercial buildings

Part P stops at the home. It applies to business premises only where they share a meter with a dwelling (a shop below a flat, for example), and not to agricultural buildings or separately metered business premises. The microgeneration entry in Schedule 3, though, covers installing a system "in a building", not only in a home, so where a commercial PV job needs building regulations sign-off, a scheme member registered for microgeneration can self-certify it.

Other parts of the Building Regulations, such as Part A (structure) and Part B (fire safety), can apply too. If you can't tell whether a job needs approval, GOV.UK says to check with a building control body. Our commercial solar planning guide covers planning and building regulations together, and RC62 covers what insurers expect on fire safety.

If you're not in a competent person scheme

Membership is voluntary. Without it, the customer (or you for them) needs approval from a building control body: the local council, through the Planning Portal, or a registered building control approver. GOV.UK describes the options:

• Full plans: the most thorough; a decision within 5 weeks, or 2 months with consent, and usually a completion certificate within 8 weeks of finishing.
• Building notice: for smaller projects; work can start 2 days after the notice is submitted, with no formal approval.
• Regularisation: retrospective approval, from a local authority only, for work already done without consent.

Local authorities set their own fees. For a business doing regular installs, that cost and the waiting is what a scheme removes.

How a competent person scheme sits alongside MCS

They do different jobs. A CPS deals with the Building Regulations: self-certifying that the work is safe and compliant. MCS certifies installers and products for small-scale renewables; on systems up to 50kW, the customer needs MCS certification to get the Smart Export Guarantee. MCS isn't on GOV.UK's list of competent person schemes, and a CPS registration doesn't make you MCS certified.

They overlap in two ways. GOV.UK says most of the minimum technical competences used to register installers with a scheme are also used, where relevant, to assess MCS installers; annex 18 is solar photovoltaic. And several bodies run both: NICEIC lists a Competent Person Scheme and an MCS Installer Scheme. How to get MCS is in our MCS certification guide, and the consumer code, TrustMark and PAS 2030 side in PAS 2030, TrustMark and RECC.

Choosing and joining a scheme

• Covers the work you do: microgeneration and renewable technologies for PV, plus electrical installations in dwellings if you also do the wider electrics in homes.
• Fits your trade: an electrical scheme puts you on the Electrical Competent Person Register that householders search.
• Can certify you for MCS as well, if you want one assessment body for both: NICEIC, for example, lists a Competent Person Scheme and an MCS Installer Scheme.
• Its application process, rules and fees, which GOV.UK says differ from scheme to scheme.
• Its assessment: you show you meet the minimum technical competence for the work (annex 18 covers solar photovoltaic), then expect inspections yearly for the first 2 years.

GOV.UK says your work is assessed before you're approved, then inspected yearly for the first 2 years. Starting out? Our guides to becoming a solar installer and starting a solar business put the scheme in order with training, insurance and MCS.

Registration lets you take the work; the next problem is finding it. Solar Surveys UK books qualified commercial solar survey appointments with business owners, and you only pay for appointments that are actually attended.

Competent person schemes for solar installers: FAQ