Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Act 2018

Key Points

• Establishes a temporary price cap on domestic gas and electricity tariffs.
• Gives the energy regulator power to modify standard supply licences to implement and run the cap.
• Permits a potential extension of the cap beyond 2020 subject to regulations.
• Introduces, via a Labour amendment agreed in the Lords, an ongoing relative tariff differential to incentivise competition within the cap period.
• A wide range of consumer-information and vulnerability-protection amendments were debated but largely not adopted in the final wording.

Progress

The bill completed all parliamentary stages and received Royal Assent in July 2018, becoming law.

Voting

In the Commons, the notable amendment to create an ongoing relative tariff differential was defeated in the report-stage vote, showing opposition to that specific change by the government; nevertheless, Labour and others supported the overall cap framework and its consumer protections, with party lines evident in several divisions.