Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to improve data‑sharing between Government departments and energy suppliers to enable more targeted support for households.

DESNZ recognises the criticality of being able to share data quickly with other parts of government and the energy sector to better target support to households. Current events underline the need for this work. We are looking at improvements to data sharing arrangements, and working with partners across government on how we can better use data to accurately identify and target support to the individuals and households most in need.

Government has amended data sharing agreements with suppliers so they now have pre-approval to re-use Warm Home Discount (WHD) data to identify households who need bill support, debt relief or energy efficiency upgrades as part of their industry initiative schemes. Suppliers can also now put the majority of pensioners in receipt of the WHD onto the priority service register automatically.

DESNZ is also working closely with other Government Departments on the National Data Library household income ‘kickstarter’ to test how public sector data can be better joined up, paving the way for better targeted support for consumers.