Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of competition conditions for domestic supply contracts within the retail energy market; and if he will make a statement.

Since 2010, the number of domestic energy suppliers in the UK has increased from 13 to over 60 and independent suppliers now have over 20% share of the dual fuel market. In addition, almost 3 million electricity and gas switches took place between January and July this year.

However, the Competition and Markets Authority has found that millions of domestic energy customers were paying around £1.4 billion annually more than they would if the market were functioning effectively. On 12 October the Government published a draft Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny that would require Ofgem to put in place a temporary price cap on standard variable and default tariffs.