Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the system of standing charges for utilities.

The Government has worked constructively with the regulator on the issue of standing charges, and we are committed to lowering the cost of them.

The setting of standing charges is a commercial matter for suppliers. Ofgem’s recently published discussion paper sets out the options for how standing charges could be reduced, including by moving supplier operational costs off standing charges onto the unit rate, increasing the variety of tariffs available for consumer in the market, and in the longer term, reviewing how system costs are allocated.

We will continue to support Ofgem in this work and ensure that standing charges are reduced.