Speeches by Fahnbulleh.

“We are doing a wider piece of work on consumer confidence in the system. We are looking at a suite of things. My objective, and the objective I have been set by my boss, is to make sure that the energy system works for consumers, that it is accessible, fair and transparent, and that people feel like it is on their side…”

“Not just back billing, but across the piece. I will give you the example of the Energy Ombudsman. That is something that is there and available to all consumers, but a lot of consumers do not know they have that point of redress. One of the things that we are looking at through the review is how we make the system far …”

“As part of the review, we are looking at all the options. The call for evidence closed at the end of February. Many ideas have come through that, including a statutory ombudsman. We are going to look at it in the round. We are doing a root-and-branch review of both Ofgem and the ombudsman that looks at everything—their…”

“There is a systemic problem that stems from the fact that we have had problems in this sector, without a doubt. Therefore, you have a combination: the fact that things are a long way from being perfect and the lack of confidence that you are being treated fairly by the system, which compounds that because consumers wil…”

“Let me start by saying that there are clear expectations in the licence conditions. What we expect from suppliers is written there in black and white. If there are breaches of those conditions, of course there should be financial penalties. Last year Ofgem fined—”

“When we think about the powers that are available to the regulator, the question is: what is the sanction that shifts behaviour where things are not going right? But there are also things like automatic compensation, which is one of the things we are looking at through the review. There are two parts of it. The first i…”

“In about 90% of cases, smart meters are working absolutely fine, but in 10% of cases they are not, and that is not good enough. We have been clear to the suppliers about our expectations and are working with the DCC to solve that problem. We are looking at the balance of incentives for suppliers so that there is as muc…”

“Yes, because that is what consumers want. A meter that is installed and not working is no good to anyone. It allows you—”

“There are three things. If we get the regulatory framework right, it will do a lot of that, as will having clear powers of investigation and enforcement. For me, there is a question about the things that we do as Government within the framework that we create, and the reforms that we are driving through in the energy m…”

“We are looking at all the options, including different models of the ombudsman, to think about how we strengthen it. As I said, we are looking at everything from the time people have to wait before they get into the redress process through to where the burden of action is. Do you wait for the customer to apply to the o…”

“The case for more powers is absolutely clear, and that is one of the things that we will look at in the context of the review. I am not here to defend energy suppliers, but I think it is really important that we put the issue of back billing in context. There are absolutely a sizeable number, but in the context of the …”

“We definitely need to tighten the rules, and that is what we have asked Ofgem to look at. On paper, the rules are that you do not back bill beyond 12 months, except where you have already issued a bill and there is debt that you are trying to recoup and/or the customer has acted unreasonably, so you cannot bill accurat…”

“Again, the Secretary of State, when he wrote to Ofgem, asked it to look at whether six months can be applied, particularly where there is a smart meter and there is no excuse. In the review, those are the two things that the regulator will be looking at.”

“There are two things I would say. We absolutely need to get better at identifying vulnerable customers so that we can protect them across the piece. It is everything from billing to the sort of priority service they will get. When customers go into debt, one of the challenges that suppliers have is those who cannot pay…”

“Well, look, 2026 is when the regulations come to an end. We will need a successor scheme. We are working with the industry towards that. One of the challenges I have is that everyone says “social tariff” but they mean slightly different things by it. Our warm home discount—our rebate—is a form of social tariff. We are …”

“I cannot speak for Treasury colleagues. In the end, my view on this—and it is certainly the view that we have taken through our warm home discount—is that if you are eligible, it is our job to make it as easy as possible for you to get support. In a change to the warm home discount that predated me, we went from by-app…”

“Yes. In the end, the whole point of having a regulator is to make sure that we have a basic quality of customer service that all consumers can expect. It has got better, but it is absolutely not where it needs to be. If it were, we would have far more confidence in the system. That is what our regulator is there for. O…”

“Let’s hope we don’t give different answers.”

“We are committed to publishing our warm homes plan in the spring. In truth, at the heart of the plan is the question of how we get clean heat into millions of households. That is predicated on two things: the up-front cost of doing that being far more affordable than it is at the moment, and the running cost of it bein…”

“We do not have an accurate number now. I do not want to give the Committee a number while we are still trying to get a full sense of the scale of the problem. I will say that we committed to doing a set of things, one of which was to contact all customers we thought might be impacted, so 60,000 customers have been cont…”