Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the recent performance of the Energy Ombudsman.

The Department has regular discussions with Ofgem on a range of issues. Ofgem is required to review the performance of the Energy Ombudsman on a biennial basis to ensure it still meets the approval criteria under which it was appointed. The Department also sought views on the role of the Energy Ombudsman in the Ofgem Review Call for Evidence, which closed earlier this year.

On 19 June the Government announced that we will consult on strengthening the Energy Ombudsman to ensure that suppliers comply with its final decisions or pay compensation to their consumer. This consultation will also look at introducing automatic referrals to the Ombudsman instead of consumers having to do this themselves, and also to explore the reduction of referral waiting times from 8 weeks to 4 weeks.

We hope that these changes will ensure that consumers can access the free Energy Ombudsman service quicker and easier and help any customer who has received a poor quality service from their supplier to receive the compensation and resolution they deserve.