BICS Readiness & Pre-Submission Review

Updated 5 September 2026.

The government's free eligibility checker is the right place to establish whether you are likely to qualify. The harder questions come next: what the site can actually claim, whether the evidence supports the pro-rating band, and whether the application is complete before submission.

There is no opportunity to amend a BICS application after it has been submitted. This review is designed both for businesses starting their evidence work and for businesses that already have an application in preparation and want an independent check before it goes in.

What the review establishes

Which entity and which site should apply. One application per legal entity per year, covering multiple sites. Sites are defined by control and adjacency rather than by address, and there is no opportunity to amend an application once submitted.

Which MPANs relate to which site, and whether the meter records match the physical boundary. This is consistently the longest lead-time task and the one everything else depends on.

Which band the evidence actually supports. At 25 per cent or less of a site's grid electricity going into eligible production you receive no exemption; above 25 per cent but below 50 per cent you receive a 50 per cent exemption; and at 50 per cent or above you receive a 100 per cent exemption. Assessed site by site, so plants in the same group can land in different bands. Supporting activities, which include lighting, compressed air, process cooling, material handling and even corporate offices, carry their own thresholds and are where most of the argument sits.

How any existing EII relief interacts. A Supercharger certificate does not exclude you from BICS. It means BICS applies only to the electricity not already relieved. The public EII list does not show the exempt percentage or which activities the certificate covers, so the residual can only be identified from the certificate itself.

What it is likely to be worth, at the government's stated £35 to £40 per MWh, with the timing built in: RO and FiT relief from April 2027, Capacity Market from October 2027, plus an indicative sizing of the one-off backdated payment.

What evidence is missing, and a dated plan to close it before 30 November.

Free checker versus independent review

What it costs

£500. Fixed fee, VAT charged where applicable. Returned within two business days of receiving the required site information. The same price applies whether you use it as an early readiness review or as an independent pre-submission check.

If you go on to instruct me for the full application, the £500 is credited in full. You do not pay twice for the same work.

I do not charge a percentage of savings. Some advisers work on a share of the relief instead, with nothing to pay upfront. That can suit a business that would rather not commit anything, but the arithmetic is worth doing: BICS relief runs for five years, so a percentage is charged against the whole of it. On a site saving £80,000 a year, five years of relief is £400,000, and a share of that is a materially different number from a fixed fee. Whichever you choose, ask what the percentage is and what it applies to.

What it is not

It is not the application itself, not a submission to the department, and not a guarantee of the band that will be accepted. It is an assessment of where you stand and what you need, done before you commit to a number you cannot withdraw.

Consultants may submit applications on behalf of a business, provided a Companies House registered officer authorises it. The business remains responsible for the application and the evidence.

What I need from you

Five things, most of which are on a recent electricity bill.

Your company number. The address of each manufacturing site. The MPAN or a recent bill for each site. Six consecutive months of grid-imported consumption per site, from within the last twelve. And what each site makes, in plain English.

If you hold an EII certificate, a copy of it as well.

Before the review

If you have not yet run the government checker, start there. And if you want to check your product codes against the full eligible list, all 84 SIC codes and all 1,641 HS6 codes are searchable here, free and without sign-up: the BICS eligible codes lookup.

Applications open on 1 October and close on 30 November 2026. There is no mid-year entry in the first year.

Related: Pro-rating bands: the published calculation method · MPAN mapping: what you need before 1 October · The Year 1 additional payment

Sources: British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme: guidance for applicants, published 10 August 2026. Support valuation from the Government response of 16 April 2026.