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[holding answer 16 March 2009]: The big six major energy suppliers all offer social tariffs. Ofgem monitors the suppliers' social programmes on behalf of Government. In its latest report published in December 2008 for the period 2007-08, Ofgem confirmed that SSE, ScottishPower and E.ON had social tariffs in place that were consistent with the revised definition of a social tariff and that the rest of the suppliers were considering their position. A copy of the report can be found at:"http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Sustainability/SocAction/Suppliers/CSR/Documentsl/Monitoring%20Suppliers%20Socia1%20Spend%20171.08.pdf"Ofgem will report formally on the suppliers' social programmes in the summer. The report will include information on whether existing social tariffs and any other new versions that have been introduced by the suppliers since its last report are or continue to be consistent with the revised definition of a social tariff.In the same report, Ofgem gave the latest data on discounted and social tariffs for 2007-08. The number of customer accounts on social tariffs per supplier, using Ofgem's definition at that time, that a social tariff had to be as good as the supplier's standard direct debit tariff, was:<Table width="100%" summary="" cellspacing="3" cellpadding="3" border="0"><TR><TD>Supplier</TD><TD>Tariff name</TD><TD>Total customers accounts</TD></TR><TR><TD>British Gas</TD><TD>Essentials (Electricity)</TD><TD>113,584</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>Essentials (Gas)</TD><TD>200,845</TD></TR><TR><TD>Total</TD><TD></TD><TD>314,429</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD>EDF Energy</TD><TD>Energy Assist (Electricity)</TD><TD>46,130</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>Energy Assist (Gas)</TD><TD>15,742</TD></TR><TR><TD>Total</TD><TD></TD><TD>61,872</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD>E.ON</TD><TD>Social StayWarm (Electricity)</TD><TD>26,833</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>Social StayWarm (Gas)</TD><TD>25,495</TD></TR><TR><TD>Total</TD><TD></TD><TD>52,328</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD>npower</TD><TD>First Step (Electricity)</TD><TD>2,108</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>First Step (Gas)</TD><TD>1,398</TD></TR><TR><TD>Total</TD><TD></TD><TD>3,506</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD>Scottish Power¹</TD><TD>—</TD><TD>—</TD></TR><TR><TD>SSE</TD><TD>EnergyPlus Care (Electricity)</TD><TD>15,282</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>EnergyPlus Care (Gas)</TD><TD>11,077</TD></TR><TR><TD>Total</TD><TD></TD><TD>26,359</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD>Total</TD><TD>Electricity</TD><TD>203,937</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>Gas</TD><TD>254,557</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD>Total customer accounts</TD><TD>458,494</TD></TR><tfoot><TR><td>¹ Social tariff launched on 1 April 2008.</td></TR></tfoot></Table>The latest available data on the total number of domestic customer accounts was reported by Ofgem in their Domestic Retail Market Report published in June 2007:"http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Markets/RetMkts/Compet/Documentsl/DRMR%20March%202007doc%20v9%20-%20FINAL.pdf"It reported that there were 21,567,261 gas and 26,917,561 electricity customer accounts, as at March 2006. Information on the number of each supplier's customer accounts is commercially sensitive and remains confidential between the Department and each energy supplier. Therefore information on what proportion of each supplier's customers' benefit from a social tariff cannot be made available.Ofgem also reported that during 2007-08, British Gas and SSE were the only companies offering other discounted tariffs at a cost of £2.19 million and £138,000 respectively. Information on the number of customer accounts benefiting from these tariffs is not available.Expenditure on social programmes and social tariffs during the same period was:<Table width="100%" summary="" cellspacing="3" cellpadding="3" border="0"><TR><TD>£ million</TD></TR><TR><TD>Supplier</TD><TD>Total spend on social programmes</TD><TD>Spend on social tariffs</TD></TR><TR><TD>British Gas</TD><TD>27.31</TD><TD>17.59</TD></TR><TR><TD>EDF Energy</TD><TD>7.37</TD><TD>4.25</TD></TR><TR><TD>E.ON</TD><TD>13.23</TD><TD>10.5</TD></TR><TR><TD>npower</TD><TD>3.95</TD><TD>0.23</TD></TR><TR><TD>Scottish Power</TD><TD>2.32</TD><TD>¹—</TD></TR><TR><TD>SSE</TD><TD>2.93</TD><TD>1.3</TD></TR><TR><TD>Total</TD><TD>57.12</TD><TD>33.87</TD></TR><tfoot><TR><td>¹ Social tariff launched on 1 April 2008.</td></TR></tfoot></Table>Information on what percentage of each supplier's turnover is spent on social programmes and social tariffs is not held by this Department or Ofgem. |