Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
19th Report - Energy Bills Support
Public Accounts Committee
HC 511
Published 28 March 2025
Recommendations
5
Accepted
Set out timetable for rebalancing energy costs and implementing electricity market reform proposals.
Recommendation
We remain concerned that even after the crisis has subsided, UK electricity bills are the highest of the countries providing comparable data to the International Energy Agency. The UK had the highest electricity price out of 25 countries reporting both …
Read more
Government Response Summary
The government commits to publishing a decision on the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) by mid-2025 and will provide the Committee with a timetable for implementing the proposals for change once decisions are made.
HM Treasury
View Details →
6
Accepted
Set out plan for ensuring grid capacity during low renewable generation and improve supply reporting.
Recommendation
The Department has more to do to convince Parliament that it has a robust plan for ensuring security of energy supply to meet increasing demand. The security of energy supply is the highest priority for the Department. Energy demand is …
Read more
Government Response Summary
The government and National Energy Systems Operator (NESO) have updated response and communications procedures, including building educational content and reframing communications, and the National Emergency Plan will be updated by DESNZ later in 2025.
HM Treasury
View Details →
17
Accepted in Part
Communication failures hampered support scheme reach to vulnerable households in need
Recommendation
Although the Department worked with local authorities on some of the schemes aimed at households who were harder to reach,44 the low take–up suggests that this approach did not identify all those in need.45 The Department said that it attempted …
Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to consider better targeting of bill support schemes, including during energy crises, and is working with other departments and stakeholders to improve data use and effectiveness of support, aiming to reach a further 2.7 million households through the Warm Home Discount Scheme.
HM Treasury
View Details →
Conclusions (25)
2
Conclusion
Acknowledged
The Department would not yet be in a position to provide more targeted support to consumers and so reduce wasteful expenditure. Most of the £44 billion of support was provided through the schemes that were universal in nature, which means that some people who did not need the support still …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to review options for better targeting support and improve data use for future schemes, acknowledging this is complex and involves ongoing work with stakeholders to consider options.
3
Conclusion
Accepted
The Department has not done enough to address the challenges of providing financial support to vulnerable consumers in the event of another crisis. The Department reported that between mid–2022 and mid–2023 the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) and Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) prevented around 289,000 households in England from going …
Government Response Summary
The government has consulted on expanding the Warm Home Discount scheme, which is estimated to reach an additional 2.7 million households, and is considering options for better targeting of future bill support.
4
Conclusion
Rejected
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 …
Government Response Summary
The government rejects the recommendation, stating Ofgem is better suited to collect and evaluate data on supplier performance in supporting consumers in debt, and it is working with Ofgem on an alternative approach.
1
Conclusion
Accepted
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (the Department) on its work to provide financial support to consumers in the light of significant increases in their energy bills.1
Government Response Summary
The government will share overarching lessons learned reports and domestic/non-domestic evaluation reports with the Committee upon their publication in Q3 2025, and will write to the Committee within one month of publication to detail learnings for future energy crises.
7
Conclusion
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 …
8
Conclusion
The Department has commissioned independent evaluations of all of its domestic and non–domestic financial support schemes.15 As part of these evaluations, the Department is reviewing whether approaches like universal support were effective, or if the cost of providing support to homes and businesses that did not necessarily need it (known …
9
Conclusion
Despite it being nearly three years since the energy crisis, the Department has yet to complete all of these evaluations. However, it told us it would be relying on the findings it does have to inform any possible future interventions.17 An interim evaluation of the domestic schemes is delayed from …
10
Conclusion
The Department said it was frustrated that the results of the evaluations would not be available to it sooner.19 Even so, it told us it was confident that it was “ready to deal with whatever happens in international energy markets”, but stressed that “there is no evidence that there will …
11
Conclusion
Most of the £44 billion of support was provided through schemes that were universal in nature, which means that some people who did not need the support still received it, affecting the schemes’ overall value for money.21 Written evidence we received from Octopus Energy, for example, said that while the …
12
Conclusion
Acknowledged
The Department said that even if it had wanted to, it would not have been able to target support at the time of introducing the schemes due to challenges with identifying household income to determine an appropriate level of support.26 Written evidence from the Energy Systems Catapult and Fair by …
Government Response Summary
The government says it is taking the opportunity to review options for better targeting of future bill support beyond March 2026, exploring data sharing and data matching to improve the targeting of economic support.
13
Conclusion
Deferred
The Department acknowledged that it does not have “a full answer at this stage” to the issues with matching income data with energy supplier data, despite it being almost three years since the spike in energy prices.31 Fair by Design highlighted that combining wider data from different departments alongside supplier …
Government Response Summary
The government is taking the opportunity to review options for better targeting of future bill support beyond March 2026, and is working with other government departments, energy suppliers, and stakeholders to consider options for improving data sharing and data matching by September 2025.
14
Conclusion
Acknowledged
The Department acknowledged that it knew less about the non–domestic sector than the domestic sector at the time of the interventions and that this “threw up a number of issues and complexities”.33 It told us that targeting the non–domestic sector was a challenge because of “level of data to allow …
Government Response Summary
The government says it is taking the opportunity to review options for better targeting of future bill support beyond March 2026, exploring data sharing and data matching to improve the targeting of economic support.
15
Conclusion
The Department reported that from mid–2022 to mid–2023, the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) and Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) prevented around 289,000 households in England from going into fuel poverty.39 However, this was not enough to offset the wider impact of soaring energy prices, which still pushed an estimated 238,000 …
16
Conclusion
Accepted in Part
Take–up of the energy bills support schemes was lower among harder–to–reach households that did not receive a payment directly from their energy supplier; 41 and may have been affected disproportionately by energy price fluctuations.42 These households did not receive an automatic payment because, for example, they did not have a …
Government Response Summary
The government is considering options for better targeting of bill support schemes and working with other government departments to unlock data to enable targeting support more effectively to those who need help with their energy bills; also expanding Warm Home Discount Scheme.
18
Conclusion
Accepted in Part
The Department said that the “biggest item of support” available to mitigate high energy prices this winter for vulnerable consumers, mainly those on benefits such as pension credit, is the Warm Home Discount scheme,47 which provides a £150 discount to eligible consumers.48 But certain vulnerable individuals like those with chronic …
Government Response Summary
The government is considering options for better targeting of bill support schemes and working with other government departments to unlock data to enable targeting support more effectively to those who need help with their energy bills; also expanding Warm Home Discount Scheme.
19
Conclusion
Deferred
Alongside a rise in energy prices, Ofgem statistics from June 2024 show the total owed by domestic consumers for both electricity and gas was over £3.7 billion compared with £1.8 billion at the end of 2021.51 A report by Clear Consultancy Services suggested that millions of people are living in …
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees and proposes that Ofgem, as the market regulator, is better suited than DESNZ to collect pertinent information and evaluate the guidance provided to energy customers experiencing debt. They are actively working with Ofgem to refine these processes.
20
Conclusion
Deferred
The Department recognised this as a serious issue. It made clear that, because in the first instance consumers facing energy debts should contact their energy supplier, the regulatory regime should that require suppliers to offer “good, accurate and helpful advice” and that the Department was expecting this of Ofgem. It …
Government Response Summary
The department proposes that Ofgem, as the market regulator, is better suited than DESNZ to collect pertinent information and evaluate the guidance provided to energy customers experiencing debt and is working with Ofgem to refine these processes.
21
Conclusion
Deferred
The United Kingdom has the highest price (including taxes and levies) for domestic electricity out of 25 International Energy Agency (IEA) countries reporting in 2023. Similarly, the UK has the highest price (including taxes and levies) for industrial electricity out of 24 IEA countries, again reporting in 2023.59 The price …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees rebalancing is needed and will set out proposals in due course, with a target implementation date of July 2025, but notes the complexity and difficult fiscal environment.
22
Conclusion
Deferred
The Department recognised that rebalancing was an important issue, given the ratio of electricity to gas prices was “high compared to many comparative countries” as a “lot of the policy [ … ] and network costs in this country are placed on electricity rather than on gas”.61 But it has …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees rebalancing is needed and will set out proposals in due course, with a target implementation date of July 2025, but notes the complexity and difficult fiscal environment.
23
Conclusion
Deferred
Three years ago, in April 2022, the previous government launched its Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) as part of its British Energy Security Strategy. This was the government’s flagship policy to enable a net 59 Q 68; Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Quarterly Energy Prices UK April …
Government Response Summary
The government will publish a decision on whether to adopt Zonal Pricing or Reformed National Pricing by mid-2025, and will provide the Committee with a timetable for implementing the proposals for change.
24
Conclusion
Accepted
Analysis from the Office for Budget Responsibility concluded that the size of the government’s financial support for energy bills (relative to Gross Domestic Product) was one of the highest in Europe because of the UK’s reliance on natural gas.69 The Department highlighted to us the importance of its clean power …
Government Response Summary
The government secures electricity security via the Capacity Market (CM), assessing capacity annually and securing it in advance, while also addressing the variable nature of renewables by relying on unabated gas and working with the market to understand the capacity provided by nuclear. DESNZ and NESO have worked to update response and communications procedures, and the National Emergency Plan will be updated later this year.
25
Conclusion
Accepted
The Department described energy security and the security of supply as its highest priority. We asked the Department what it thought about concerns, set out in a document published by Net Zero Watch called “Blackout Risk in the GB Grid”, that events such as certain weather conditions, or interruption to …
Government Response Summary
The government secures electricity security via the Capacity Market (CM), assessing capacity annually and securing it in advance, while also addressing the variable nature of renewables by relying on unabated gas and working with the market to understand the capacity provided by nuclear. DESNZ and NESO have worked to update response and communications procedures, and the National Emergency Plan will be updated later this year.
26
Conclusion
Accepted
Demand on the grid is likely to grow due to the increased demand for electric cars and heat pumps and a rising number of data processing centres, as well as the move to building more new homes.78 In addition, the Department also has plans to achieve a decarbonised, or clean, …
Government Response Summary
The Capacity Market (CM) is the department’s primary mechanism to ensure supply meets demand and delivers electricity security, and the department is focused on maintaining existing flexible capacity to ensure security of supply.
27
Conclusion
In December 2024, the government published its pathway to a clean power system by 2030.80 We asked the Department what part it expects nuclear to play in the mix of low–carbon energy.81 Given the timescales involved to build new nuclear infrastructure versus ambitions for clean power by 2030, the government’s …
28
Conclusion
We asked the Department why it was taking so long to get small modular nuclear reactors “up and going”.85 We also asked how it was going to make sure that a high percentage of the content of a modular nuclear reactor 75 Q 6 76 Q 8 77 National Energy …