Oral Answers to Questions

William Bain Excerpts

Thursday 12th July 2012 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)]

1. What steps he is taking to increase protection for consumers in the energy market.

[The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Mr Edward Davey)]

As the independent regulator of the gas and electricity markets, Ofgem’s primary duty is to protect consumers, and it has consulted on proposals to improve consumer protection and competition in its retail market review. The Government have consulted on new powers for Ofgem to compel energy companies to provide redress to consumers who have lost out because of a regulatory breach.

[Mr Bain]

According to the Government’s own figures, fuel poverty in England is set to rise by 400,000 this year. In Scotland, more than one in four people are in fuel poverty, in Wales the figure is one in three and in Northern Ireland it is nearly one in two, yet 5 million customers are still being overcharged by the big six energy companies. When will the Government take the strong action that is needed with those companies to ensure that over-75s are always put on the cheapest tariffs—a change that would help 6,299 people in my constituency and 4 million pensioners across the country?

[Mr Davey]

The Government have consulted on how we can change the measure of fuel poverty so that it is more exact and so that we can ensure that we tackle the worst fuel poverty. The previous Government could not even measure fuel poverty properly. As regards ensuring that the big companies give a fairer deal, Ofgem’s retail market review is considering everything from standards of contact to improving billing and tariff simplification. Those and other measures will help people.