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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of decoupling gas and electricity wholesale prices.

The Government has recently announced a package of support for consumers and non-domestic customers that will provide people with certainty on energy bills. This includes negotiating new long term energy contracts with domestic and international gas suppliers, accelerating all sources of domestic energy, including North Sea oil and gas production, speeding up our deployment of all clean and renewable technologies including hydrogen, solar, carbon capture and storage, and wind, and also working with electricity generators to reform the outdated market structure where gas sets the price for all electricity.

The Government recently launched The Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) - a major review into Britain’s electricity market design, which is considering ways of increasing investment in low carbon capacity which would result in gas-fired generation being the price setter for electricity less often, and reforms to the wholesale market which could decouple gas and electricity prices.