Carbon reporting software: what UK law needs it to produce

It collects activity data such as energy bills, fuel, travel and spend, converts it into greenhouse gas emissions using published conversion factors, organises the results by Scope 1, 2 and 3, and produces the outputs a reporting regime asks for.

For a UK company that usually means the SECR lines in the directors’ report, and for a listed company from 2027 the UK SRS S2 metrics.

The useful test is whether it keeps the working behind every figure: the factor set and year, the boundary and the method.

For some companies.

SECR is mandatory for quoted companies of any size and for large unquoted companies and LLPs, and DESNZ’s evaluation counted 19,900 organisations in scope.

ESOS is a mandatory energy audit for large undertakings.

Listed companies in UKLR 6, 14, 15, 16 and 22 must report against UK SRS on a comply-or-explain basis for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027 under the FCA’s final rules in PS26/19.

UK SRS is voluntary for everyone else, and CDP is voluntary.

This site does not rank products, because nobody here has tested them.

The software that suits SECR is the software that produces all of Schedule 7’s lines from one dataset: energy in kWh, emissions from fuel and purchased electricity, at least one intensity ratio, the methodology statement, the energy-efficiency narrative and last year’s comparatives, plus the statement a low-energy user must make.

Ask each vendor to show a finished SECR section produced by its platform, and check it against the checklist on this page.

UK-focused platforms say they load the DESNZ conversion factors, and global platforms usually offer them as one factor set among several.

The question to ask is which year’s set is loaded and whether that year is stored on each figure.

The 2026 set was published on 11 June 2026 and is for activity data that falls entirely or mostly within 2026, and its electricity factor fell 26% from the 2025 set, partly because of a methodology change.

Most platforms offer Scope 3 by category, starting from spend-based estimates and moving material categories to supplier or activity data.

What the regimes ask differs: SECR requires almost no Scope 3; the PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan asks for five named categories; UK SRS S2 requires gross Scope 3, says all fifteen categories must be considered and asks which are included; listed companies have a one-year Scope 3 relief under PS26/19.

Most vendors do not publish a price.

Of the seventeen whose sites we read on 30 September–1 October 2026, 2 publish a figure (Microsoft Sustainability Manager and Salesforce Net Zero Cloud) and 1 runs a published free tier (Persefoni).

The other 14 are labelled Enterprise level · TBD here, and Seedling, which asks for a quote, reads TBC.

Ask for a three-year cost including implementation, the annual uplift, the cost of adding an entity and the cost of exit.

Persefoni publishes a free Persefoni Pro plan limited to a single user, with its SECR and ISSB GHG metrics reports as paid add-ons.

A free tier is a way to build a first inventory; check whether it produces the SECR lines and keeps prior-year figures before relying on it for a directors’ report.

The regulations do not require either.

A single-site company with a few meters can meet SECR from a spreadsheet if the method and evidence are kept.

Software earns its place with several entities, material Scope 3, several regimes on one dataset, or an assurance engagement.

A consultant can do the first inventory or review the method; many companies use both.

ESOS is different, because a lead assessor on an approved register must review the assessment unless an exemption applies.

Some platforms say they hold the energy data, the 95% coverage view, audit records and the evidence pack, and export for the MESOS notification.

No software removes the human steps: site audits where the plan requires them, and review by a lead assessor on an approved register unless an ISO 50001 or low-consumption route applies.

Phase 4 qualification is tested on 31 December 2026 and notification is due by 5 December 2027.

No. Nothing in Schedule 7 requires the SECR figures to be audited or assured, and the government guidance says there is no statutory requirement to have environmental information audited.

A listed company reporting against UK SRS states whether it obtained assurance and, if so, who provided it, what was covered and which standards were used.

Assurance itself is not required.

ISSA (UK) 5000 is for voluntary use.

Carbon accounting is the measurement layer: activity data, conversion factors and a calculation.

Carbon reporting is the disclosure built on it: the SECR lines in the directors’ report, UK SRS S2 metrics, a Carbon Reduction Plan or a CDP response.

Many products do both, so the useful question is which output a platform produces rather than which label it carries.

This site does not name a best product, because nobody here has tested any.

Tracking software refreshes the inventory through the year, takes meter data on a schedule and flags readings that break pattern.

Test it on your own data: one month, one site, your invoices, and ask to see the factor year stored on a figure and a finished output for the regime you are in.

Personal footprint calculators are a different product from the corporate platforms on this page, and no UK reporting regime asks an individual to use one.

A company reports on its own activity data, using the DESNZ conversion factors for the year the activity falls in, and the disclosure it owes depends on its size, its listing and its customers.

No. The Technical Standard asks for Scope 1 and 2 in full, five named Scope 3 categories and a net zero by 2050 commitment, and it does not name a tool.

A plan is a condition of bidding for in-scope central government contracts above £5 million a year.

Some vendors say their platforms produce a PPN 006 report; ask which categories it covers and from which data.

UK CBAM is a tax, not a reporting duty.

It is charged on imports of aluminium, cement, fertiliser, hydrogen and iron and steel from 1 January 2027 under Part 5 of the Finance Act 2026, and the importer is liable.

Some vendors list CBAM reports among their offerings; the duty to register, make returns and pay is the importer’s, calculated from embodied emissions measured against a government system boundaries document.

None.

Schedule 7 Part 7A prescribes the lines a directors’ report must contain and the ESOS Phase 4 guidance prescribes the assessment, and neither names or approves a software product.

What the law requires is the output, the evidence behind it and, for ESOS, review by a lead assessor on an approved register.

Six dated changes: DBT published UK SRS S1 and S2 on 25 February 2026; DESNZ published the 2026 conversion factors on 11 June; the SECR post-implementation review recommended retaining SECR with amendments; SI 2026/701 amended ESOS for Phase 4; the FCA published its final rules in PS26/19 on 30 September, with comply or explain for listed companies from 1 January 2027; and UK CBAM commences on 1 January 2027.

ISSA 5000 and ISSA (UK) 5000 take effect for periods beginning on or after 15 December 2026.

It should hold the record the statement is written from.

UKLR 6.6.6R(7A)(b) asks a listed company that does not meet S2 in full to say which requirements it has not met, why, and the steps it plans.

The FCA’s draft Technical Note TN 803.1 proposes that an explanation can be short and proportionate and need not give a timeframe or explain each requirement separately; it is draft guidance, open for comment until 28 October 2026.

It estimates emissions by multiplying what a company paid for something by an emissions factor for that category of spending, rather than multiplying a physical quantity such as kilowatt-hours or tonnes.

The GHG Protocol’s Scope 3 guidance lists spend-based as one of four calculation methods for purchased goods and services, the least specific of them, and says a company need not always use the most specific method first.

DESNZ’s 2026 methodology paper says users may use spend-based methods where they lack the data for activity-based ones, and should report the methods they used.

Total the kilowatt-hours from the bills as a figure of their own, convert them with the DESNZ factors for the year the activity falls in, and add the intensity ratio, the methodology, any energy-efficiency measures and last year’s figures.

Those are the lines Part 7A of Schedule 7 asks for, and they go into the directors’ report, which is filed with the accounts.

A company that used 40,000 kWh or less states that the figures are not disclosed for that reason.

This site names no product, because nobody here has tested any.

A business that does not exceed two of £36 million turnover, £18 million balance sheet and 250 employees, is not quoted and does not bid for in-scope central government contracts has no SECR or Carbon Reduction Plan duty on size alone, and a spreadsheet with the DESNZ factors and a written method is enough to start.

If SECR does apply, the test is whether the tool produces every Schedule 7 line.

No UK reporting regime sets a security standard for carbon software, so the usual questions come from general schemes.

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 is the best-known standard for an information security management system, and the NCSC’s Cyber Essentials is built on five technical controls.

Ask the vendor for the certificate, its scope and the body that issued it, and check it with that body, because certification is the vendor’s claim until you do.

Section 414CB of the Companies Act 2006 sets eight climate-related disclosures for the largest traded companies, banks, insurers, AIM companies and companies with turnover over £500 million, above a 500-employee floor.

The Department for Business and Trade confirmed in February 2026 that UK SRS S2 is a national reporting framework for the purposes of section 414CB(6), so a company reporting under S2 does not need to duplicate its disclosures.

Software sold for TCFD or climate disclosure is, for a UK company, software pointed at one of those two.

Yes, if you export before you leave: the raw data, the calculations, the factor year on each figure and the evidence.

Paragraph 20H of Schedule 7 asks for last year’s figures beside this year’s, so decide and record whether last year is rebuilt on the new method or carried across as first reported.

Put the cost and format of the export in the contract before you sign.