Contracts worth more than £70,000 to install solar panels on schools were awarded to a company headed by the brother of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s most senior civil servant,
According to a report by Politico based on a Freedom of Information request, the deals went to Amelio Enterprises, a solar installation firm owned by renewable energy supplier Good Energy whose chief executive Nigel Pocklington is the brother of Jeremy Pocklington, the former permanent secretary at DESNZ.
Jeremy Pocklington served as the department’s top official between February 2023 and November 2025 before moving to the Ministry of Defence. Ofgem announced that its boss Jonathan Brearley, will now take over the role at DESNZ.
The contracts formed part of a government scheme to install solar panels on schools and hospitals funded through Great British Energy.
Great British Energy, the publicly owned clean power company created by the government, has a budget of £8.3 billion to support energy projects including renewables and nuclear.
The procurement process for the solar contracts was handled by Crown Commercial Services within the Cabinet Office.
Funding for the projects was announced by DESNZ in September 2025 as part of efforts to cut energy costs in public sector buildings.
At the time the contracts were awarded Amelio Enterprises had recently been acquired by Good Energy in October 2024.
Jeremy Pocklington had declared his brother’s role at Good Energy on his official register of interests.
The entry stated he would “recuse himself from any direct engagement with Good Energy” and that any dealings would be delegated to a director general.
DESNZ declined to comment on the procurement process.
A spokesperson for Good Energy said: “We strongly reject any suggestion of a conflict of interest in this contract. The work was awarded following an open, competitive tender process and assessed against the same objective criteria applied to all suppliers.
“Amelio Solar Enterprises had already built a strong track record delivering solar projects for schools and had secured similar work for several years before Good Energy acquired the business.”
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