Notice and consultation on licence modification for 'Provision of Information'

The driver for this licence modification is the latest Utility Regulator Corporate Strategy which is focused on greater transparency including publishing more relevant information that promotes the interests of consumers and reflects the expectations of stakeholders.

The current 'Provision of Information to the Authority' licence condition effectively provides that we may not request information from the licence holder for the purposes of the exercise of its functions under Article 7 of the Energy (Northern Ireland) Order 2003.

Article 7 of the Energy Order provides that where it appears to us that the publication of any advice and information would promote the interests of consumers, we may publish that advice and information in such manner as we see fit.

We consider that the current licence condition places unnecessary constraints on our ability to obtain information which could potentially promote the interest of consumers if we were to publish that information or advice based on the information.

This is the first of two consultations. In the first instance, we are focusing on electricity and gas supply licences. A second consultation is being developed for all other relevant electricity and gas licences. 

Additional information: 

• Your response may be made public by the Utility Regulator. If you do not want all or part of your response or name made public, please state this clearly in the response by marking your response as ‘CONFIDENTIAL’.
• If you want other information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, there is a statutory Code of Practice with which public authorities must comply and which deals, amongst other things, with obligations of confidence. In view of this, it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential.
• Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with the access to information regimes (these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 2018).
• As stated in the GDPR Privacy Statement for consumers and stakeholders, any personal data contained within your response will be deleted once the matter being consulted on has been concluded though the substance of the response may be retained. 

Ways to respond