Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 7
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)
In designing the energy bills support schemes, the Department drew on lessons learned from support schemes during the pandemic, such as reducing opportunities for fraud by using information from energy suppliers to limit the need to apply for support and verify energy usage. It also worked with fraud experts in government, including the Public Sector Fraud Authority. Fraud and error levels in the energy support schemes were lower than for other schemes implemented during the pandemic.12 The Department estimated a fraud and error rate of 0.7% of scheme payments, worth £291.8 million.13 This is compared to 11% for Bounce Back Loans and an estimate by the Public Sector Fraud Authority of government fraud and error levels ranging from 0.5% to 5%.14 5 C&AG’s Report, para 1.6 6 C&AG’s Report, para 10 7 Qq 16, 18 8 C&AG’s Report, para 1.3 9 Q 9 10 C&AG’s Report, para 9 11 C&AG’s Report, para 17 12 Q 34 13 C&AG’s Report, para 10 14 C&AG’s Report, para 10 8
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".