Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what protections they have in place to prevent energy firms from leaving households without power in their homes; and what penalties are imposed on energy firms that do not take sufficient care of vulnerable customers or which wrongly disconnect customers.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Ofgem rules include an Ability to Pay Principle that requires suppliers to provide appropriate support for those struggling to pay their bills. Support may include setting up appropriate repayment plans based on a customer’s ability to pay, and by directing the customer to further support services.
Ofgem is responsible for ensuring licensed energy suppliers are complying with their licence conditions. Ofgem publishes details of its compliance and enforcement action on its website.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to reforming the way in which Ofgem manages the energy price cap.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
There are no plans to do this.
As the expert independent regulator, Ofgem is responsible for operating the price cap. Ofgem remains the sole decision-maker over how it is calculated and has consulted extensively on its methodology for determining the cap level. The Government has confidence in Ofgem to set the cap at a level that reflects the underlying efficient costs of supplying energy.
The price cap was never intended to be a permanent feature of the market. As announced in the Autumn Statement, we are developing a new approach to protecting consumers’ energy prices from April 2024.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what instructions they have given to Ofgem on ensuring that the costs of failed energy firms do not fall more heavily on vulnerable customers and single person households.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The costs of failed energy firms have contributed to an increase in standing charges. The energy regulator, Ofgem, reviewed whether the existing fixed charge was appropriate or whether a usage-based (volumetric) alternative would be more suitable.
Ofgem concluded that while some low consuming users, some of whom may be vulnerable, might benefit from change, there are a number of higher consuming users including vulnerable users that would pay more.
Ofgem’s current methodology protects users with greater energy needs, such as disabled users and users with electric heating in areas off the gas grid.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of increasing the retail customer energy standing charge; and what proportion of the increase in the standing charge is due to the need to compensate the customers of failed energy firms.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The maximum standing charge is limited by the Ofgem price cap. Ofgem reviewed the components of the standing charge in the Summer of 2022 and concluded that maintaining the existing methodology would protect consumers with the greatest energy needs.
Standing charges vary by region, billing method and energy type and range from approximately £99 to £205. In figures published by Ofgem in November 2022, Supplier of Last Resort costs (for those customers whose provider ceases trading) accounts for £61 in the average customer’s energy bill.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many applications they have received for Green Home Grants; and how many of these are from (1) private residential landlords, (2) social landlords, and (3) owner-occupiers.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As of 18 November 2020, 42,507 grant applications have been received for the Green Homes Grant scheme, with 5,928 application from landlords and the remaining 36,579 from owner-occupiers.
As part of the scheme application process, landlords are not asked to declare if they let their property to private residential or social tenants. Therefore we are unable to provide information on the number of applications received, at this level of granularity.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that existing customers within the mobile, broadband and mortgage markets cease to pay more than new customers.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In December 2018 the independent Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) responded to a super-complaint by Citizens Advice on the “Loyalty Penalty”. Since then Government and Regulators have taken significant action to tackle the loyalty penalty.
The FCA has also conducted a Market Study in the mortgages market to better understand the problem in that sector. In mobile and broadband, Ofcom has delivered agreements in both markets to benefit consumers. Consumers now receive Annual Best Tariff Notifications alerting them to their contract terms and the best offers their provider has. All major mobile providers, with the exception of Three, will reduce consumers’ bills once their minimum contract period ends. Broadband consumers are benefitting from a range of voluntary measures agreed with major providers, and Ofcom is investigating whether there should be social tariffs in broadband.
The Government continues to support competitive markets that drive down prices and create better products and services for consumers. It is also committed to strong regulation, where necessary, to protect consumers and drive investment and fair competition by businesses, and looks forward to seeing the further outcomes of the ongoing work by Ofcom and the FCA.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the classification of (1) all people aged over 70, and (2) all pregnant women, as ‘clinically vulnerable’ to COVID-19, whether (a) employers are entitled to deny such people the same chance to work as others, regardless of their health, and (b) voluntary organisations are entitled to ban such people from volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic. [T]
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
It is against the law to discriminate against someone because of their age or because of being pregnant or on maternity leave.
Under Health and Safety legislation, employers have a legal responsibility to protect workers and others from risk to their health and safety. They should do everything reasonably practicable to minimise the risks. Clinically vulnerable individuals, who are at higher risk of severe illness, have been asked to take extra care in observing social distancing and should be helped to work from home, either in their current role or in an alternative role.
If clinically vulnerable individuals cannot work from home, they should be offered the option of the safest available on site roles, enabling them to stay 2m away from others. The Health and Safety risk assessment should reflect this.
The Health and Safety Executive has guidance for business on how to manage risk and risk assessment at work along with specific advice to help control the risk of coronavirus in workplaces.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have made to ensure that UK car manufacturers can maintain their integrated supply chains after March 2019 if there is no withdrawal deal agreed with the EU.
Answered by Lord Henley
The UK is the second largest market for cars in the EU, with manufacturing supply chains highly integrated across Europe. The Government recognises the importance these integrated supply chains play in maintaining the competitiveness of the UK automotive industry. There has been extensive cross-government engagement with key stakeholders across the automotive sector since the referendum, which has informed and continues to inform our thinking.
We are acting to strengthen the domestic supply chain. As part of the Automotive Sector Deal, Government is investing in a new industry-led programme to raise the competitiveness of UK industry suppliers to match the best in Europe. This will support the industry’s ambition to increase the level of content by value in domestically-built vehicles to 50 per cent by 2022.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to reassure Japanese car makers that they will not face tariffs, interrupted supply chains, or losing Type Approval for their new automobile models, in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement.
Answered by Lord Henley
As a result of the significant progress made in negotiations, and the agreement reached at the March European Council on the transition period and withdrawal agreement, we are increasingly confident that we will secure a deal with the EU and that the prospect of leaving negotiations with ‘no deal’ has receded significantly.
We want our future relationship with the EU to be a deep and special partnership. We are confident that this is in the interests of both sides to secure a good deal outcome. Both the UK and the EU share a strong commercial interest in preserving integrated supply chains, including those that support just-in-time production across the entire automotive sector.
Cross-government engagement with key stakeholders across the automotive sector since the referendum has informed and continues to inform our thinking.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 19 December 2016 (HL4007) and 28 December 2016 (HL4008), what due diligence is undertaken to guard against international scams where a new company sets up in the UK with only an overseas bank account or credit card, and no domestic banking arrangements.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
A company incorporated in the UK which has banking arrangements overseas but not in the UK would be subject to the due diligence checks by the bank required by the local law where the branch of the bank is located. A company which incorporates in the UK but carries on its business outside the UK may still use the services of UK agents, who may carry out due diligence checks, whether voluntarily or as required by UK law.