1. Sources for your rights
The sources to refer to for your rights in respect of the supply of gas and electricity are as follows.
•Primary legislation – principally Acts of Parliament, the Gas Acts 1986 and 1995, the Electricity Act 1989, the Competition and Services (Utilities) Act 1992, the Utilities Act 2000, the Energy Act 2010, the Energy Act 2011, the Energy Act 2013, the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the Energy Prices Act 2022 and the Energy Act 2023. The legislation specific to Wales and Scotland is also passed by the devolved governments.
•Statutory instruments – regulations made under legislation – eg, the Electricity (Standards of Performance) Regulations 2015 No.699 and the Gas and Electricity (Consumer Complaints Handling Standards) Regulations 2008 No.1898.
•Law reports and court decisions of judgments and rulings by the higher courts which clarify the scope and meaning of words and phrases used in legislation. These are especially important in determining whether a contract has been offered, made or rejected.
•Licences – the electricity and gas supply licences set out the conditions that all energy suppliers must adhere to to supply energy to consumers – these are known as the ‘Standard Licence Conditions’. Ofgem (the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) issues, and monitors compliance with, licences. Ofgem acts on behalf of the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (GEMA). GEMA has a duty to protect consumer interests, promoting effective competition wherever possible, and has powers under the Competition Act 1998.
•Your contract with your supplier – if you get your fuel from one of the licensed gas or electricity suppliers, the rules governing your relationship with that supplier are in the legislation, in statutory instruments or arise from the contract. The standard terms and conditions for your contract must be freely available from the supplier.
•Codes of practice – each supplier publishes its code of practice or statement of policy for various processes, such as complaint handling, marketing or billing and the installation of smart meters. The codes are not legally binding by themselves, but they do indicate how a supplier should and usually will behave in certain situations. You may be able to get a remedy against a supplier’s practice or action simply because it breaches one of the relevant codes of practice. Copies of the complaint handling code of practice should be made available to any person who requests it and should also be published on the supplier’s website. Advisers should have the relevant codes for the main suppliers in their locality. The codes may also be referred to in legal proceedings.1Laverty and others v British Gas Trading [2014] EWHC 2721 (Ch) They are periodically revised and modified with set dates for reviews and changes in codes.2Ofgem, Code Modifications/Modification Proposals with Ofgem, 15 October 2021 •The gas and electricity minimum standards of performance regulations (see here). These set minimum standards for the performance of gas and electricity supply companies and distributors for various situations. •Decisions of the Energy Ombudsman – although not binding, these indicate the standards expected and can help assess the adequacy of responses to complaints.
•Objectives for tackling fuel poverty are set by the Energy Act 2013. A fuel poverty indicator for England was adopted3DECC, Fuel Poverty: a framework for future action, Cm 8673, July 2013 and the Scottish government’s Fuel Poverty (Target, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Act was passed in 2019. •Regulations and directives previously issued by the European Union. These provide a framework within which much of the law governing energy is constructed. Existing provisions continue to apply for the time being, and some measures ensuring consistencies in billing have been adopted and incorporated into electricity supply licence terms and conditions.4The Electricity and Gas (Internal Markets) (No.2) Regulations 2020 No.1401 implementing EC Directive 2019/944