Question reference: S5W-28147
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 30 March 2020
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Current status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 3 April 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with energy companies regarding reducing tariffs during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Answer
The Scottish Government is in regular dialogue with Energy UK and individual energy companies to understand the impact of the Covid 19 on their operations and on energy consumers.
There has been ministerial and official engagement with suppliers and Ofgem focused on the difficulties that vulnerable customers may be facing at this time, and measures being taken to encourage customers to engage early with their supplier(s). In order to address these impacts, suppliers have agreed to a number of actions including deferring payments wherever possible and taking additional steps to identify consumers at risk.
There has been no substantive discussion with suppliers on energy tariffs themselves, albeit we have recently been made aware of early engagement suppliers are taking forward with UK Ministers in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on these matters as well as business impacts on the sector, given legislative and regulatory powers currently sit with UK Ministers and the UK Parliament, as a consequence of provisions of the Scotland Act (1998).