Draft Motor Fuel Price (Open Data) Regulations 2025

Martin McCluskey Excerpts

Tuesday 4th November 2025 General Committees

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Martin McCluskey)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Motor Fuel Price (Open Data) Regulations 2025.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell, in my first Statutory Instrument Committee as Minister for Energy Consumers. Through these regulations, we will establish the legislative basis for creating a statutory open data scheme called Fuel Finder, which will increase fuel price transparency across all UK petrol filling stations, empowering consumers to compare prices on a near real-time basis.

In recent years, fuel prices have risen and that has had a profound impact on households, businesses and communities across the UK, as I am sure Committee members have witnessed in their constituencies. In my constituency, the Greenock Telegraph has run a very active campaign for years on fuel pricing. Between 2021 and 2022, the price of petrol and diesel rose by more than 60p a litre, driven by global supply and demand shocks stemming from the covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, drivers paid an estimated £900 million more at the pumps across major supermarket retailers than in the previous year. By 2023, higher fuel margins across the whole market had cost drivers a further £1.6 billion.

The Competition and Markets Authority found that price rises for fuel and disparities between prices at a local level were driven by major retailers using the volatile backdrop and the lack of transparency to increase their profit margins unfairly and at the expense of consumers across the UK, contributing to the cost of living crisis and the hardship that families up and down the country have felt in recent years. My job as the Minister for Energy Consumers and the job of the Government is to change that picture and to protect households from price hikes, and that is why we are delivering change to protect consumers, to put an end to unfair pricing practices and to increase transparency in the fuel retail market.

In line with the CMA’s recommendations in the road fuel market study, we are rolling out a statutory open data scheme for fuel prices at the end of the year. These regulations will replace the CMA’s current voluntary scheme and mark a decisive step forward in empowering motorists across the UK to compare prices easily and to make informed choices about where they purchase their fuel. Motorists across the UK will have greater visibility on the range of choice available to them, and retailers will be incentivised more than ever to offer more affordable prices in a more competitive market.

The regulations will require all petrol filling stations in the UK to register and report changes to their fuel prices within 30 minutes of a change. The information will be freely available almost in real time. That marks a fundamental step to restoring competition and fairness in a market that has proved that it will not self-correct without Government intervention. By making this information openly available to any third parties that request it, we will enable the market to integrate the data into digital mapping services and vehicle satellite navigation services to help motorists to locate the best prices in their area.

We recognise that the regulations will deliver a change in the operations of the industry, and that is why the scheme has been carefully designed to take into account the operational complexities of a wide range of fuel retailers to ensure that the measures are clear and proportionate. The regulations were designed in consultation with the industry, and our aim is to build an open data scheme that not only serves a purpose for consumers, but supports the retailers that are involved in reporting. We have designed a simple and time-efficient system for retailers to provide price updates using a practical and accessible digital solution that works across all types of retailer. It will be a change for operators at the beginning, but we expect it to become business as usual quickly and to create transparency in the market without placing unnecessary administrative burden on businesses.

It is impossible to predict how fuel prices will respond as they remain incredibly sensitive to wider geopolitical factors, but we estimate that implementing a statutory open data scheme for fuel prices in the UK could result in fuel cost savings for drivers of £10.4 billion across a 10-year period. We have seen the benefits of other fuel price open data schemes in countries such as Australia and Germany, and we have learned from them in designing this scheme. Where consumers have access to real-time data, prices have decreased. Those international examples show that markets respond to open data schemes and that the schemes deliver their promise to bring down prices, which makes me confident that Fuel Finder will not only meet the expectations, but set a new standard for transparency in the UK fuel market.

This instrument represents an important step in bringing forth real change in market transparency, making a progressive step to a more transparent and fair market. The Government are committed to honouring the promise in the 2024 Budget to restore fairness at the pump, ensuring that motorists are no longer disadvantaged by pricing practices. Fuel Finder is not just a technical solution, but a practical one that puts consumers across the UK at the heart of policy design. By shining a light on pricing practices, Fuel Finder will increase competition to help to bring down fuel prices and ensure that no driver is left overpaying at the pump.

--- Later in debate ---

[Martin McCluskey]

That was detailed, if nothing else. It is refreshing to hear those on the Conservative Benches back their own policies in opposition. At the moment in my brief, I am more used to hearing Conservative Front Benchers disavow the policies of the previous Government in my Department. The shadow Energy Secretary could learn from this breakout of consensus.

I will begin by responding to the points of the spokesperson for the official Opposition, the hon. Member for Mid Buckinghamshire. If I neglect to answer any of those points, he should please intervene to remind me of anything I did not scribble down quickly enough.

The CMA annual report will address margin transparency and the other issues that he laid out. It would likely be quite difficult to put margin transparency in place in the current scheme until we have Fuel Finder operational, but it will be included in the CMA’s annual report. On the legal requirement around whether or not fuel is available at a particular filling station, that point was raised during the consultation and examined by officials. A thorough analysis was done of how easy, or not, it would be to collect that information. The determination was made that, although the request for inclusion is well intentioned—and I can understand it; it would be useful information—it would be very technically difficult to include it on a real-time basis in the scheme, which could potentially undermine a lot of the other measures that we are trying to ensure as part of the scheme. On enforcement, I would point the hon. Member towards part 6 of the instrument, which gives details on enforcement. I do not share the hon. Member’s concerns.

Concerns were raised about amenities. It is clear, both from what the CMA has already published and from the impact assessment and explanatory memorandum, that a proportionate approach will be taken to any enforcement, on a case-by-case basis. The published guidance has been clear about that, which hopefully reassures those who have raised concerns about the amenities being included. We are, and have been, actively engaging on amenities, but it is also important to note that amenities were consulted on as part of the consultation exercise that was undertaken, so it is not quite right to say that there has been no consultation with industry on this point.

[Greg Smith]

The Minister has said that there needs to be proportionality, but he supports some of the other amenities being reported on. If it is possible for any fuel retailer to say whether they have a current working coffee machine or microwave, how is it not possible to report on whether they have any petrol or diesel in the tanks?

[Martin McCluskey]

That is why we are, and will continue to be, in constant engagement with industry on amenities.

Let me address the points made by the right hon. Member for Melton and Syston. The rationale for worldwide turnover is commonly understood, and already used within the industry. That is why that measure was selected. On the concerns around rurality, there will be other mechanisms for people to feed in that do not rely on, for example, an internet connection. People will be able to text the price in real time, and able to use a telephone service—though we do not actually think that there will be an issue with wi-fi, because lots of rural fuel stations will use wi-fi for their payment systems.

VE3 Global was appointed as the successful supplier to become the aggregator of Fuel Finder. VE3 Global specialises in digital transformation, data aggregation and cloud-based solutions, so it has lots of experience in this area. The right hon. Member also asked a final question on guidance. We will publish the guidance and training before the whole programme is rolled out, so that people can have some certainty and assistance. As I said, we understand that this is a change for businesses, and certainly represents a change to business as usual, so we want to make sure that people are properly guided and trained.

I thank hon. Members for their valuable contributions to the debate and the questions they raised. I also thank the Lib Dem spokesperson for her support of the statutory instrument. I conclude by reaffirming our commitment to creating a firm and transparent UK road fuel market. Now more than ever we need to protect households and businesses from pricing practices and deliver change to reverse the sharp spikes in road fuel prices in recent years. I commend the draft regulations to the Committee.

Question put and agreed to.