Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to his contribution of 18 June 2014, Official Report, column 1193, on energy prices, what assessment his Department has made of the rocket and feather effect in energy prices.

Ofgem have carried out a detailed assessment of the rocket and feather effect. , first in a research paper in 2011 and more recently, along with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), in the State of the Market Assessment. Evidence that large suppliers raise prices more quickly when costs increase than they reduce prices when costs fall was one of the issues underpinning Ofgem's recent referral of the energy markets to the CMA.