Letter to the Editors of The Sun, The Daily Record and The Daily Mirror on today's press coverage

Press release

Publication date

Industry sector

Supply and Retail Market

Dear Sirs,

Claims in The Sun, The Daily Record and The Daily Mirror today that Ofgem does not know whether energy consumers are being ripped off or not are completely untrue.

As we made clear in a statement yesterday, we continually check on the link between wholesale and retail prices, and our own analysis has found no evidence to support this allegation.

We have pushed for, and achieved, far greater transparency in the energy market. And this Spring we are aiming to have further reforms in place requiring suppliers to post the prices at which they will sell wholesale electricity two years in advance. This will make pricing even clearer.

When companies break the rules we also take strong action. Since 2010 we have imposed over £75 million of penalties and redress payments on the industry and we continue to work to ensure the energy market is simpler, clearer and fairer for consumers.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Wright
Interim Chief Executive

-Ends-

Notes to editors

  1. Ofgem is the Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets, which supports the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority, the regulator of the gas and electricity industries in Great Britain. The Authority’s functions are set out mainly in the Gas Act 1986, the Electricity Act 1989, the Competition Act 1998 and the Utilities Act 2000. In this note, the functions of the Authority under all the relevant Acts are, for simplicity, described as the functions of Ofgem.

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