Final proposals for non-domestic supplier complaint handling performance

Final proposals for non-domestic energy supplier complaint handling performance [ 180 kb]

During the consultation period Citizens Advice was asked to clarify a number of issues raised by Energy UK, its members and other suppliers. These issues included a request for more information on the scoring model and how the 10,000 customer threshold for supplier inclusion was arrived at. A number of respondents were concerned about the accuracy of the data we intended to use to establish the market share of energy suppliers. In order to allow stakeholders more time to consider the latter issue in particular, we extended the consultation period to allow suppliers to gain a full understanding of what was being proposed.

By far the most serious concern raised by respondents to the consultation was around how to best establish the market share data for suppliers. We initially  proposed using customer numbers from Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) and Xoserve. Having reviewed the responses to the consultation and consulted with Ofgem, we have decided not to go ahead with using the data outlined in our original proposals document. Citizens Advice will be issuing a rotating and ongoing information request to suppliers that will allow us to obtain appropriate and consistent customer numbers.

Some suppliers, and Energy UK, had concerns about the inclusion of Ombudsman Services: Energy (OS:E) deadlock cases in the  metric. Several respondents said that if these cases were included, they should, as a minimum, be subject to a lower weighting than OS:E cases that were more than eight weeks old. We have decided to exclude deadlock cases from the scoring model.