Oral Answers to Questions

John Penrose Excerpts

Tuesday 20th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[James Cartlidge]

I do not entirely accept that. I would be interested to know the detail behind that figure. What we can confirm is that we have two specific levies: one on oil and gas, and one on certain electricity generators. We think that these are being applied in a very fair way. The levy to which the hon. Member refers does include an allowance for investment but this is the point. That level of support cannot continue for ever. The long-term answer is energy security—investment in new energy sources and, indeed, investment in the North sea, supporting UK jobs and the transition to net zero.

[John Penrose (Weston-super-Mare) (Con)]

3. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Financial Conduct Authority in protecting customers from loyalty penalties in the insurance market.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (John Glen)]

The Government welcome the Financial Conduct Authority’s pricing rules, introduced in January this year, which require insurers to offer a renewal price no greater than the price the firm would offer to a new customer for the same policy. The Financial Conduct Authority has confirmed there is no evidence of widespread non-compliance with those rules.

[John Penrose]

The FCA’s cheap and, we hope, effective measures to stop insurance company customers being ripped off is in stark contrast to the energy price cap, which was introduced for exactly the same reason, but has not held down the price of energy and has larded hundreds of pounds of extra hedging costs on to every household’s energy bills to boot. Since the Treasury is spending vast amounts of taxpayers’ cash on energy subsidies at the moment, will my right hon. Friend speak to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy about replacing the failed energy cap with a version of the FCA’s much cheaper and more effective approach as soon as energy prices return to normal?

[John Glen]

I am very happy to look at that question further. The Government previously considered, but rejected, asking Ofgem to implement a relative rather than an absolute price cap in energy markets, which would have similarly prevented energy suppliers from charging those large differentials, because it was judged that it was more likely to distort competition in the fixed-term tariff market. As ever, I am happy to continue the conversation with my hon. Friend and I know he will take the matter up further with the regulator.