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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to help protect consumers from significant increases by energy companies in standing charges.

For millions of households the level of standing charge is protected by the energy price cap rate set by Ofgem. While the setting of tariffs is a commercial matter for individual supply companies, the energy unit rate and the standing charge together must not exceed the price cap.

Ofgem have recently launched a consultation to review the component of the Standing Charge that consumers pay toward the Supplier of Last Resort levy. Ofgem expects to publish a response in August.