Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 4
19th Report - Energy Bills Support
Published 28 Mar 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Energy Bills Support All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Department and Ofgem are not doing enough to ensure people falling into debt with their energy bills receive the advice and support they need from their energy supplier. At the same time as energy prices have risen significantly so has the extent to which people have fallen into debt with their energy bills. Consumer energy debt is at a worryingly high level, with £3.7 billion owed by domestic consumers for both electricity 4 and gas in 2024 compared with £1.8 billion in 2021. Millions of people are living in cold conditions and cutting back on essential costs such as food. Many people who are unable to pay their energy bill struggle to receive good, accurate and helpful advice or support from their energy supplier. The Department accepts this is a serious issue and is working with Citizens Advice to look at what can be done to provide a stronger debt advice service to support customers. Ofgem has recently launched a review of service standards and support for people in debt; and the Department has initiated a wider review of Ofgem to ensure that it has the powers to address any poor outcomes for energy consumers. These reviews provide an opportunity to ensure consumers receive better support from their energy suppliers when they face difficulty paying their bills. recommendation The Department should collect data on how well suppliers are performing in providing advice and support to consumers that struggle to pay their energy bills. The Department should use this data as part of its review of Ofgem, to assess whether it has the information and powers to deal with suppliers that do not provide sufficient advice and support to consumers in debt.
From: Public Accounts Committee, 19th Report - Energy Bills Support (HC 511), 28 March 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Nineteenth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Nineteenth report from Session 2024-26
Published 18 September 2025.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Nineteenth report from Session 2024-25
Published 10 July 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with the Committee's recommendations on lessons learned, targeted support, vulnerable consumers, electricity bills and energy supply, and disagrees with the recommendation on supplier debt advice data.
- On lessons from the evaluations, the government agrees and says that "within one month of publication" the department will write to the Committee, with evaluations to be published by Q3 2025 (target date October 2025).
- On targeting support, the government agrees (target September 2025) and says it is "taking the opportunity to review options for better targeting of future bill support" beyond March 2026, while describing data sharing as "complex matters".
- On supplier debt advice data, the government disagrees. It proposes that Ofgem, as market regulator, is "better suited than DESNZ" to collect information, and says the review of Ofgem aims to publish its outcomes in autumn 2025.
- On rebalancing electricity and gas costs, the government agrees (target July 2025) and says it "will set out proposals for rebalancing domestic energy bills in due course". It adds that it is operating in a "difficult fiscal environment".