Recommendation 25

In our June 2023 report on Energy Bills Support, we found that the government planned to replace the Energy Bill Relief Scheme with the Energy Bill Discount Scheme. This would support businesses for 12 months from April 2023 by providing a discount on their energy bills if wholesale prices were above a certain threshold. Businesses in certain Energy and Trade-Intensive sectors would receive a higher level of support, based on the government’s standard industrial classification of sectors.53 We therefore asked the Department to update us on whether there had been any assessment of the change 47 Committee of Public Accounts, Regulation of energy suppliers, Twenty-Fifth Report of Session 2022–23, HC 41, 13 November 2022; and Energy Bills Support, Fifty-Eighth Report of Session 2022–23, HC 1074, 16 June 2023 48 Committee of Public Accounts, Energy Bills support, Fifty-Eighth Report of Session 2022–23, HC 1074, 16 June 2023, para 13 49 Qq 11–13 50 Letter from Jonathan Brearley, Chief Executive of Ofgem to Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair, Public Accounts Committee, 14 June 2023 51 Committee of Public Accounts, Regulation of energy suppliers, Twenty-Fifth Report of Session 2022–23, HC 41, 13 November 2022 52 Qq 2–3; Energy Price Guarantee - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ; Default Tariff Cap | Ofgem 53 Committee of Public Accounts, Energy Bills support, Fifty-Eighth Report of Session 2022–23, HC 1074, 16 June 2023, para 20 Bulb Energy 19 in the support being provided and the impact it had. The Department told us that an Energy Bill Discount Scheme was in place for all businesses to provide a base level of support. In April 2023, the Department also announced additional support for businesses classified as Energy and Trade Intensive.54 We again noted that some Energy and Trade Intensive businesses such as laundrettes and the hospitality sector were not included in the classification and so were not eligible to receive additional support. The Department explained that defining an Energy and