Finances

Funding

Our regulation work is funded by the annual licence fee we charge some licensed energy network companies. We also get money from government departments for specific projects.

Administration costs for some environmental and social schemes are funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). Other schemes fund the administration costs themselves.

Budget

Our Forward Work Programme sets out what we plan to work on and how much it will cost. Every year we are given a budget which is approved by Parliament. Our annual reports show how we spend our budget. Our main estimate memorandum gives further information on the budgets for Ofgem, including comparison with the previous year.

Spend and procurement

We buy goods and services such as:

• economic consultancy (market studies, auditing, corporate finance advice)
• engineering consultancy (technical auditing, engineering costs reports)
• legal services
• market research
• IT services, hardware and consultancy

Read how procurement and bidding for contracts works.

We publish all our payments over £500 and payments over £25,000. We also publish all board and director expenses. Our prompt payment data reports show how quickly we pay for goods and services.

Audits

Our internal audits are done by an independent company. They tell us what is working well and where we need to improve. They send an annual internal audit opinion to our accounting officer, chief executive Jonathan Brearley.

The environmental and social energy schemes we run on behalf of the government are audited by separate independent companies.

The National Audit Office audits our annual report and accounts.