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 effect of exclusive tariffs on price comparison websites on competition in the energy retail market.

The offering of exclusive tariffs by price comparison companies enables them to exert competitive pressure on suppliers to offer consumers better energy deals. The ability to offer exclusive tariffs and the removal of the requirement to show whole of the market tariffs by price comparison companies followed the Competition Markets Authority’s recommendation in its market study of digital comparison tools in 2017. Consumers can access the exclusive tariffs via the price comparison companies’ websites or telephone comparison service.