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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the daily standing charge in energy usage, in the context of significant rises in consumption charges.

The standing charge includes charges from network companies for using pipes and cables to carry gas and electricity supplies, the maintenance and installation of meters and billing and accounting. A small proportion also goes towards Government initiatives to help vulnerable households and reduce emissions.

Without the standing charge, these costs would be added to the unit price of energy. Otherwise, suppliers would not be able to recover the legitimate costs of serving customers.

For millions of households, the level of the standing charge is protected by the energy price cap rate set by Ofgem.