SONI published their Annual Forward Plan for 2023/2024 in September 2023. We then asked for written submissions from stakeholders on their views of the plan and a workshop was held in November 2023.
The Evaluative Performance Framework (EPF), devised as part of the SONI 2020 to 2025 price control, allows for the evaluation of SONI’s performance by an independent panel of experts (‘The panel’).
The EPF framework aims to incentivise SONI to demonstrate collaboration with stakeholders, innovation, greater transparency and accountability in its operations in planning and performance reporting, ultimately to the greater benefit of the Northern Ireland consumers.
The panel conducted an evaluation of SONI’s Forward Plan, taking all evidence into account. The panel then submitted their recommendation report to us in December 2023. We are publishing this today.
Having considered the panel’s recommendation report, and all evidence, we have made our final decision to accept the panel’s grading of SONI and the subsequent financial incentive. The financial reward will be dependent upon the outturn performance report at year end. The £224k Forward Plan financial incentive may increase or decrease depending upon performance and output delivery against the plan.
We have written to both SONI and the panel to advise of our decision.
Panel Recommendation Report Dec23
Letter to EPF Chair RE UR Decision SONI FWP 2023-24
Letter to SONI RE UR Decision FWP 2023-24
Conclusion of EPF year 2022/2023
The final assessment of the current EPF year (2022/2023) commenced following publication of SONI’s Annual Performance Report for 2022/2023 in December 2023. A call for stakeholder feedback is currently open and more information can be found here. We will publish a report by April 2024 on SONI’s overall performance for the price control year 2022/2023.