Consultation on a New Supplier Code of Practice on Bills and Statements

The Utility Regulator today publishes a consultation paper on a new code of practice on bills and statements.  In July 2014 the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (now known as the Department for the Economy) made the Energy Efficiency Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014. These Regulations state that:

“Any bill or statement of account sent to a customer…..complies with the guidance issued and published by the Authority….”

We have therefore produced a code of practice on bills and statements which will become mandatory for all electricity and gas suppliers (following consultation).  The main purpose of this code of practice is to bring together all the requirements relating to bills and statements that are currently in the licence, codes of practice and other areas of energy legislation.  In addition we are consulting on some principles which will help to guide suppliers in the development of customer friendly bills and statements.

This consultation provides the background to the code of practice on bills and statements and details our research into billing in other jurisdictions and industries.  In addition it sets out the draft code of practice and seeks views from suppliers and other industry stakeholders on the high level principles and more detailed content of the code.

Responses to the consultation, preferably in electronic format, should be forwarded to reach us on or before 1230 on 07 October 2016 to:

Ursula O’Kane
Utility Regulator
Queens House
14 Queen Street
Belfast
BT1 6ED
ursula.okane@uregni.gov.uk