Fuel Poverty Advisory Group
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)
The coalition Government, as part of their reform of the public bodies sector, have committed to undertake triennial reviews of all Executive and advisory non-departmental public bodies.
As part of this process I am announcing today the triennial review of the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group (FPAG).
FPAG is a non-departmental advisory body of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which consists of a chairman and senior representatives from the energy industry, charities and consumer bodies. The role of the group is to:
Consider and report on the effectiveness of current policies aiming to reduce fuel poverty;
Consider and report on the case for greater co-ordination;
Identify barriers to reducing fuel poverty and to developing effective partnerships and to propose solutions;
Consider and report on any additional policies needed to achieve the Government’s targets;
Encourage key organisations to tackle fuel poverty, and to consider and report on the results of work to monitor fuel poverty.
The aims of the review are:
to provide a robust challenge of the continuing need for an NDPB to carry out these roles—both their functions and their form; and
if it is agreed it should remain as an advisory NDPB, to review the control and governance arrangements in place to ensure that the public body is complying with recognised principles of good corporate governance.
There will be a short consultation process and we welcome views from interested stakeholders regarding the role of FPAG. We will publish the findings of the review on the DECC website in the summer.