Question reference: S5W-29665
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 4 June 2020
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Current status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 11 June 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with energy companies to help alleviate any fuel poverty that has been caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.
Answer
The Scottish Government is engaging regularly with Energy UK and Ofgem to ensure that the needs of fuel poor households are considered. We are also engaging with individual suppliers to discuss how they are supporting their customers. I last spoke to Energy UK on 2nd June when I pressed for their members to provide support in a more consistent way.
As energy is reserved, I wrote to the UK Government on 21 April to press them to take further action and provide additional financial help for households.
The Scottish Government has also strengthened existing arrangements for support to fuel poor households, including increasing the funding for the Scottish Welfare Fund and providing funds to various organisations supporting those struggling with energy costs at this time.
We continue to engage regularly with stakeholders to understand the issues that households are facing and where relevant we share this feedback with both Energy UK and Ofgem to ensure it can be acted upon.