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Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

Regulation of energy suppliers

Status: Closed Opened: 9 Jun 2022 Closed: 24 Feb 2023 9 recommendations 16 conclusions 1 report

Since the summer of 2021 around 30 gas and electricity suppliers have exited the market in the ongoing energy supply and price crisis, affecting around four million customers. Most customers have been transferred to alternative suppliers through the Supplier of Last Resort process managed by Ofgem, the regulator for the gas and electricity markets in …

Clear

Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Twenty-Fifth Report - Regulation of energy suppliers HC 41 13 Nov 2022 25 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

4 items
8 Conclusion Twenty-Fifth Report - Regulation of ene… Deferred

In the decade after it was opened to competition, the UK energy supplier market consisted...

In the decade after it was opened to competition, the UK energy supplier market consisted of six large energy companies and a similar number of smaller suppliers. Since 2010, smaller companies have entered the domestic energy supplier market in greater numbers.11 Ofgem told us that a small number of energy …

Government response. Ofgem is looking to put in place new policies to create a more stable market and will write to the Committee within six months, including proposals for an industry-wide minimum requirement for capital reserves, and other measures to try to …
HM Treasury
17 Recommendation Twenty-Fifth Report - Regulation of ene… Deferred

Ofgem told us that, in its view, the price cap had been a huge benefit...

Ofgem told us that, in its view, the price cap had been a huge benefit for customers and had done a lot of good for them over the last six months, and that while the price cap could not stop rising energy prices, it had “mitigated them somewhat”. It explained …

Government response. The government will develop a new approach to consumer protection in energy markets, which will apply from April 2024 onwards, including options such as social tariffs, as part of wider retail market reforms.
HM Treasury
18 Recommendation Twenty-Fifth Report - Regulation of ene… Deferred

Ofgem told us that the price cap had not been sufficiently adaptable to the “once...

Ofgem told us that the price cap had not been sufficiently adaptable to the “once in a generation change” in wholesale prices during the winter of 2021–2022.43 We asked Ofgem whether it had considered the possibility of high wholesale energy prices in designing the price cap. Ofgem told us that …

Government response. The government will develop a new approach to consumer protection in energy markets, which will apply from April 2024 onwards, including options such as social tariffs, as part of wider retail market reforms.
HM Treasury
25 Conclusion Twenty-Fifth Report - Regulation of ene… Deferred

In July 2021, the Department published its Energy Retail Market Strategy for the 2020s, which...

In July 2021, the Department published its Energy Retail Market Strategy for the 2020s, which set out its vision for a retail market which enabled net zero. In December 2021 the Department announced it needed to refresh the strategy to take account of the lessons from recent months and launched …

Government response. The government will work with consumer groups and industry to consider the best approach to consumer protection in the energy market from April 2024 as part of wider retail market reforms, while Ofgem has developed a consumer interest framework (CIF) …
HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
11 Jul 2022 Joanna Whittington · Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Jonathan Brearley · Ofgem, Jonathan Brearley · Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Neil Lawrence · Ofgem, Sarah Munby · Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy View ↗