Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has made an estimate of the average number of days that elapse between a direct debit payment being taken from a customer's account by an energy supplier and the issuance of an Energy Bill Support Scheme payment to that customer.

Direct debit (DD) customers are receiving their monthly Energy Bills Support Scheme payments from electricity suppliers either as a reduction to the DD amount collected, or as a refund to the customer’s bank account following the DD collection. The Direction for the scheme requires that any such refunds are issued immediately after taking the usual DD payment from the customer. Suppliers are required to report to government on delivery and data is being published monthly. No data has been collated specifically on the average number of days between a DD payment and the EBSS discount being applied.