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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has made an assessment of energy company compliance in instances when customers ask for a positive account balance to be refunded.

Regulatory compliance is a matter for Ofgem. The Department does not hold data on this issue.

Under existing rules set by Ofgem, suppliers must automatically refund outstanding credit balances within 10 days of issuing a final bill. Suppliers must also refund accumulated credit on request by an existing customer in a timely manner unless they have reasonable grounds not to. They must explain the reason to the customer.