Questions and answers

Question reference: S5O-03946

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking in response to reports that there are regular breaches of the time limits aimed at preventing delay in High Court trials.

Question reference: S5W-26452

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it will make to Ofgem and the UK Government as part of the Supplier Licencing Review.

Question reference: S5W-26457

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ask Ofgem to provide an estimate of the average credit balance held by customers in Scotland for each energy supply company that has failed since January 2018.

Question reference: S5W-26454

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will seek reassurance from Ofgem that any new rules it is proposing to put in place under the Supplier Licencing Review will alleviate the moral hazard problem in the energy supply market where suppliers are able to use an uninformed line of credit in the form of customer credit balances.

Question reference: S5W-26453

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will encourage Ofgem, through its Supplier Licencing Review, to ensure that energy suppliers guarantee (a) 100% of their credit balances and (b) government policy costs, should they fail through parent company guarantees, ringfenced cash or any other appropriate financial instrument.

Question reference: S5W-26474

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Consumers and Markets Taskforce has had with Citizens Advice Scotland regarding options for a unified priority services register across public authorities, agencies and utilities.

The Consumers and Markets Taskforce was created to provide Scottish Ministers with strategic advice on priorities and actions relating to consumer and market issues in Scotland. As its remit evolved, its focus moved to supporting the practical development of Consumer Scotland in order to ensure that the Scottish Government’s desire to better represent consumers and put them at the centre of policy-making could be realised. As this work has continued, The Scottish Government has also provided support to consumer advocacy and advice bodies to ensure that the needs of priority consumers are considered and acted upon and the needs of priority customers continue to be discussed in Ministers’ and officials’ direct engagements with energy suppliers.

Question reference: S5W-26456

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Ofgem on protecting consumers from higher bills as a direct result of energy supply company failures, where credit balances and unpaid renewables obligations are thereafter mutualised across other suppliers.

Question reference: S5W-26475

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to convene a further meeting of energy suppliers and consumer organisations to discuss support for vulnerable consumers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-26472 on 5 December 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Whilst we currently have no plans for further summits, the Scottish Government continues to engage with individual energy suppliers and stakeholders as part of our commitment to advocate for the needs of Scottish energy consumers to the UK Government, Ofgem and energy suppliers. Should there be a need, the Scottish Government is open to holding such summits in the future.

Question reference: S5W-26451

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ask Ofgem to provide an estimate of the costs of energy supplier failure in Scotland, including (a) managing the supplier of last resort process, (b) covering the cost of consumer credit balances and (c) unpaid renewables obligations, since January 2018.

All legislative and regulatory powers regarding electricity and gas markets remain reserved to UK Ministers under the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998, and, consequently, the Scottish Government does not currently have any devolved powers to direct actions in either market. However, we have a good working relationship with the UK regulator, Ofgem, and seek, within this limited context, to work closely with them and officials and Ministers within the UK Government to ensure that the electricity and gas markets work as well as can be achieved for Scottish consumers and to help Scottish Ministers to address fuel poverty and meet the needs of vulnerable customers. These issues also feature strongly in our ongoing discussions with energy suppliers as we seek to deliver against Scotland’s Energy Strategy.

We are currently considering Ofgem’s ongoing consultation on the Supplier Licensing Review, with a view to identify any further issues that may need to be highlighted as part of the Scottish Government response and wider efforts to ensure the best possible outcomes for Scotland’s energy consumers.

Question reference: S5W-26472

Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what actions and commitments were agreed at the energy suppliers roundtable, which it hosted on 19 January 2018, and what progress has been made in taking forward each of these, including those concerning compiling Scotland-specific data covering (a) pre-payment meters, (b) warrants, (c) smart meter installs and (d) the number of customers enrolled on (i) the Priority Services Register and (ii) standard variable tariffs.

The Scottish Government’s Energy Consumer Action Plan, published in May 2019, builds on the outcomes of the Vulnerable Energy Consumer Summit in January 2018. It was developed with support from an expert advisory group. It takes into account recent development in energy systems and markets and addressed the remaining actions from the summits. A full list of actions can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/energy-consumer-action-plan-putting-consumers-heart-scotlands-energy-transition/pages/3/ .

These include commitments to:

establish an energy consumer commission to amplify the voice of Scottish energy consumers,
developing an energy consumer charter that will set guiding principles to support the collective effort needed to address issues impacting Scottish consumers and,
sharing more consumer data through an interactive data hub.

We have called on Ofgem to provide more detailed data on Scottish consumers and they have agreed to amend the social obligation reporting requirements for energy suppliers from 2021 to gain more insight into Scottish Energy consumer issues. We will continue to work closely with Ofgem to build on this data to improve our understanding of issues affecting vulnerable consumers. In addition we have drawn on other data sources to gain insight into the number of consumers using pre-payment meters amongst other issues.

Whilst we currently have no plans for further summits, the Scottish Government continues to engage with individual energy suppliers and stakeholders as part of our commitment to advocate for the needs of Scottish energy consumers to the UK Government, Ofgem and energy suppliers.

Chamber and committees