My Lords, these regulations were laid before the House on 6 December 2022. We have already passed legislation concerning the energy bill relief scheme pass-through requirement for heat suppliers, which ensures that benefits from the energy bill relief scheme, known as the EBRS, are passed through to end consumers on heat networks. This legislation also provides for a route to resolve disputes between consumers and heat networks on these pass-through requirements.
This statutory instrument amends the pass-through regulations, introducing a requirement on heat suppliers to send a simple notification to provide information to the Secretary of State by 6 January 2023. This information, which includes heat suppliers’ names, business addresses and contact details, will be shared with the energy ombudsman and the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland to support their handling of domestic and micro-business consumer complaints. This information will also be shared with the Office for Product Safety & Standards—the OPSS—for enforcement purposes.
The SI strengthens the OPSS’s powers of enforcement, enabling it to request information from suspected heat suppliers to determine whether they fall within the scope of the regulations. The OPSS may also impose existing civil sanctions, including a monetary penalty on heat suppliers who fail to comply with the requirements to notify, join the redress scheme or provide information. The monetary penalty has been modified, providing for a maximum of £5,000 to provide an effective deterrent for non-compliance.
The SI also amends the existing regulations to reduce the administrative burden on heat network companies, removing the requirement for heat suppliers to provide information about the calculation of the benefit when they first notify end-users about the scheme, while retaining the requirement to provide these calculations in the next bill.
The EBRS and the corresponding pass-through regulations have been introduced as a critical component of support for consumers on heat networks and complement other support that the Government are providing with energy and the cost of living. We expect that the notification requirements will facilitate the consumer complaints handling process and that the strengthened enforcement powers will result in a higher number of heat suppliers passing on the EBRS discount to their customers. I commend the regulations to the Committee.