Speeches by Young.

“Do Katie or Alex want to add anything on any of those points?”

“Dr Raj, are there any reasonable excuses for retailers failing to accurately bill consumers? Are there any reforms that will make this process easier? You have already said that greater roll-out of smart meters would help, in your view, although they need to be working ones.”

“On the specific point of people having complained and suppliers changing the bill but not explaining why, are the people coming to you commonly experiencing that or is that a rare occurrence?”

“Alex, how often do you find that when retailers are challenged on an energy bill, they change the billed amount but do not give any adequate explanation for why they have changed it?”

“Welcome to our panellists. Katie, is it fair that consumers are expected to monitor the accuracy of their own bills? What more, if anything, should suppliers be doing to ensure that bills are accurate?”

“It still relies on them making the complaint to the business in the first place if it is going to happen.”

“It still relies on them making the complaint to the business in the first place if it is going to happen.”

“When you are doing the review, are you planning to do any work to seek out and survey businesses, or do any other means of trying to find out why people might not be coming to you?”

“If businesses, including the larger ones that you do not cover, have ongoing issues, are they concerned that if they take action on incorrect billing it will affect their credit rating in the meantime? These things can take a long time to resolve and that could have all sorts of knock-on implications. Are you concerned…”

“Do you believe it is appropriate for energy suppliers to threaten to send debt collectors to small businesses while in the middle of an investigation by the Energy Ombudsman?”

“I would like to talk about dispute resolution for small businesses rather than domestic consumers. How often does the Energy Ombudsman require that small businesses are compensated with awards close to its £20,000 limit? Does the ombudsman’s lack of enforcement powers encourage it to lessen the penalties it imposes on …”

“Welcome to our panellists. Katie, is it fair that consumers are expected to monitor the accuracy of their own bills? What more, if anything, should suppliers be doing to ensure that bills are accurate?”

“You are trying to make predictions when people are switching, but is there a role for being able to look afterwards at whether you have made the savings? Perhaps after six months or whatever you might be thinking, “You know what, this is not working for me.””

“Katie, you mentioned people being able to judge whether they are on the right tariff or not. Do you think consumers are in a good place to know whether new tariffs like zero standing charge options would actually benefit them?”

“Do Katie or Alex want to add anything on any of those points?”

“Dr Raj, are there any reasonable excuses for retailers failing to accurately bill consumers? Are there any reforms that will make this process easier? You have already said that greater roll-out of smart meters would help, in your view, although they need to be working ones.”

“On the specific point of people having complained and suppliers changing the bill but not explaining why, are the people coming to you commonly experiencing that or is that a rare occurrence?”

“Alex, how often do you find that when retailers are challenged on an energy bill, they change the billed amount but do not give any adequate explanation for why they have changed it?”

“My hon. Friend is making a strong case for Three Shires medical practice, which has three surgeries in my constituency. Does he agree that if any of the surgeries were to close, it would be a disaster for patients because of the poor public transport links? Does he agree more generally that it is more expensive to deli…”

“As we know, not all local education authorities are created equal. For those like South Gloucestershire, where schools are among the lowest funded in the country, the average rise quoted will not make up for years of underfunding. As I recently raised in this House, it is reported that two thirds of South Gloucestershi…”