Ofgem Consumer First Panel - Year 4: Second workshops (held in March 2012). Consumer engagement with the energy market, information needs and perceptions of Ofgem
Reports, plans and updates
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This round of workshops with Ofgem Consumer First Panellists was intended to help Ofgem build on earlier work to understand what information and reassurances might encourage consumers to engage with the energy market, and to understand Ofgem's potential role in facilitating the provision of this information. The workshops were also used as an opportunity to understand consumer perceptions of Ofgem and its work more broadly, to feed in to future strategy development. The overall aims of this research were to: identify the information that should be made publicly available about different energy suppliers and the switching process that would encourage consumers to review their energy options; identify the best sources for consumers to access this information and examine measures that could boost confidence in these areas; and gauge understanding of Ofgem and examine whether its current role and activities are in line with consumer expectations, including discussion about the function of Ofgem's website.
Workshops with 96 participants were conducted in six locations across Great Britain between the 5th to 15th March 2012. This follows a previous round of workshops with the same Panel members in October – November 2011.