Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland will be better off as a result of the Ofgem price cap on domestic energy bills announced on 6 September 2018; and if he will make a statement.

The price cap will protect around 11 million households in England, Scotland and Wales on standard variable tariffs (SVTs) in addition to around 5 million people already protected by the safeguard tariff. Of those SVT households that will be protected by the price cap, the Department estimates that around 1 million households are in Scotland and around 10 million in England & Wales. Energy policy is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland, where there are existing arrangements to cap certain prices in the market.

Under Ofgem’s proposals those on SVTs will be better off, with some customers on the most expensive tariffs saving around £138 a year.

These figures are based on Ofgem’s typical domestic consumption values of 3.1MWh per year of electricity and 12MWh per year of gas.