Guidance for derogation requests from domestic Retail Market Review (RMR) licence conditions
Guidance
Publication date
Industry sector
Supply and Retail Market
This document sets out Ofgem's updated guidance on the process for requesting a derogation from an electricity or gas supply Standard Licence Condition introduced or modified as part of the Retail Market Review (RMR) reforms.
The updated guidance aims to:
- Provide greater clarity on our approach to assessing derogations.
- Illustrate our approach through examples of derogations granted to date.
- Simplify and accelerate the application process.
A derogation from the RMR rules is a direction from the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority relieving a licensed supplier from its obligations to comply with certain licence conditions in specific circumstances and to a specified extent. In the absence of a derogation, suppliers (and, where applicable, their representatives) are required to comply with all RMR rules.
We consider the use of derogations only in limited circumstances. A licensed supplier may submit a request for derogation where it is able to demonstrate that compliance with one or more relevant RMR rules would have substantial unintended or unanticipated negative consequences for consumers. For example, we may consider derogations for social tariffs targeted at vulnerable consumer groups or pilot schemes for innovative products linked to smart metering.
Each derogation request is considered on a case-by-case basis and we only grant a derogation after careful consideration of the evidence provided by the supplier or third parties, including the wider implications for RMR policy. For more details on our derogation process, please see our RMR derogation guidance. The guidance provides details on our derogation process, the minimum information requirements suppliers should provide when submitting derogation requests and our criteria for assessing derogation requests.
As a first step, interested suppliers should contact the derogation team through Derogations@ofgem.gov.uk before submitting a formal derogation request.
Previous derogation decisions
The derogation decisions we have so far approved can be accessed through the links below.
- Decision to issue Pure Planet Limited temporary directions for alternative compliance assessment for the default tariff price cap - 18 December 2019
- Decision to British Gas (Derogation from the Prohibition of Dead Tariff rules to exit the supply of SVTs) – 25 June 2019
- Decision to issue Pure Planet Limited temporary directions for alternative compliance assessment for the default tariff price cap - 1 January 2019
- Decision to grant Npower Group PLC a temporary and limited derogation from standard licence condition (SLC) 22C.4 of its electricity and gas supply licences.
- Derogation to British Gas (Derogation from the Prohibition of Dead Tariff rules to exit the supply of SVTs) - 29 March 2018
- Market-wide derogation (Statement of Renewal Terms) - 14 December 2017
- Derogation to Npower (Temporary and Limited Derogation End of Fix Term Notice Period Trial) - 29 November 2017
- Derogation to Pure Planet Limited (Flexible Unilateral Variation Notification) - 1 August 2017
- Derogation to Npower (Temporary Derogation for Statement of Renewal Terms Trial) redacted - 15 May 2017
- Derogation to Npower (Temporary Derogation for Statement of Renewal Terms Trial) unredacted - 15 May 2017
- Derogation to British Gas (Temporary Derogation for Billing Trial) - 21 November 2016
- Derogation to British Gas (Temporary Derogation for Billing Trial) redacted – 22 June 2016
- Derogation to British Gas (Temporary Derogation for Billing Trial) unredacted – 22 June 2016
- Derogation to Utilita Energy (MPAN MPRN Statement Paper with Annual Statements) - 1 June 2016
- Derogation to Good Energy (Delabole Local Tariff scheme) – 15 January 2016
- Derogation to SSE (Differentiation in Payment Method Differential) – 14 December 2015
- Derogation to British Gas (Additional Gas Tariff) redacted - 30 November 2015
- Derogation to Green Energy (Share Scheme) - 16 September 2015
- Derogation to Spark Energy (Affordable Social Housing Prepayment Tariff) - 06 May 2015
- Derogation to Ovo (Southend-on-Sea Borough Council Tariffs) - 27 February 2015
- Derogation to Ovo (Peterborough City Council Tariffs) - 19 February 2015
- Derogation to Ovo (Plymouth Energy Community Tariffs) - 29 January 2015
- Derogation to Ovo (Community Energy South Tariffs) - 29 January 2015
- Derogation to Ovo (Cheshire East Council Tariffs) - 29 January 2015
- Derogation to British Gas (Rebate to Vulnerable Gas Customers) - 23 January 2015
- SUPERSEDED - Derogation to Green Energy (Share Scheme) - 22 December 2014
- Derogation to Ovo (Interest Reward on Credit Balances) - 10 December 2014
- Derogation to Flow Energy (MicroCHP Boiler Discount) - 22 September 2014
- Derogation to Ecotricity (Electric Vehicle Discount Scheme) - 02 July 2014
- Derogation to E.ON (Social Tariff – Warm Assist Fixed) - 17 June 2014
- Derogation to Good Energy (Hampole Local Tariff Scheme) - 14 May 2014
- SUPERSEDED - Derogation to Green Energy (Share Scheme) - 23 January 2014
- Derogation to EDF (Barkantine Tariff Scheme) - 17 January 2014
- Derogation to Good Energy (Delabole Local Tariff Scheme) - 15 January 2014
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