The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero published the response to its Fairer, faster redress in the energy market consultation on 17 June 20261. The consultation ran from 9:30am on 23 October 2025 to 11:59pm on 4 December 2025 and applies to England, Scotland and Wales1. It received 42 responses from stakeholders including consumer groups, energy suppliers, heat network operators, trade associations, alternative dispute resolution providers, consultants, academics, charities and members of the public1.
The consultation sought views on strengthening the role and powers of the Energy Ombudsman in the retail energy market1. The proposals put to consultation were: reducing the window before complaints can be escalated to the Ombudsman from 8 weeks to 4 weeks, with exceptions for complex cases; reducing the time the Ombudsman has to consider complaints to 4 weeks; exploring how to make referral more automatic, including advanced signposting, automatic onboarding of consumer details and proactive outreach; giving the Ombudsman an explicit power to require suppliers to compensate consumers where a ruling has not been implemented on time; and strengthening the standing of the Energy Ombudsman by designating it in legislation and giving statutory weight to Ombudsman decisions by placing an explicit obligation on suppliers to implement Ombudsman rulings1.
The consultation focused on complaints against domestic energy suppliers, complaints by small enterprises against non-domestic energy suppliers and complaints against heat networks1. It did not focus on electricity and gas networks, where the department said there is not evidence of consumer detriment to justify an intervention, nor on Third Party Intermediaries, which had recently been consulted on separately1.
The response document presents the government's latest policy positions on which proposals will be progressed, considering the feedback received, additional supplier evidence and internal analysis, and also summarises the feedback received1. The consultation document ran to 37 pages and the response to 42 pages1.
"The government remains fully committed to improving consumer access to redress supported by consultation feedback."
Why it matters for households
Redress is the route a household takes when a supplier does not resolve a complaint directly. The proposals under consultation concerned how quickly a complaint can reach the Energy Ombudsman and how firmly a ruling binds the supplier. A shorter escalation window and a shorter consideration period would compress the time a household waits for a decision, and an explicit compensation power would attach a cost to late implementation of a ruling. Statutory weight for Ombudsman decisions would change the status of a ruling from something a supplier is expected to follow into an obligation. The consultation did not cover electricity and gas networks or Third Party Intermediaries1. The response sets out which proposals will be progressed; the published outcome does not state a commencement date for any change, and no timetable has been reported1.
What happens next
The consultation has concluded and the response has been published1. The page was first published on 23 October 2025 and last updated on 17 June 20261. No dated next steps beyond publication of the response are given in the outcome1.