British Gas rejoins Energy Switch Guarantee

British Gas has rejoined the Energy Switch Guarantee (ESG) just months after confirming it had quit the scheme which is designed to drive higher standards around the switching process.

It comes as the latest results for the ESG show that fellow large supplier, Scottish Power, is also now listed as a signatory to the voluntary scheme after previously not participating.

Utility Week has contacted both suppliers for comment but has received no response at the time of publication.

The ESG is a series of commitments by retailers to hit certain standards and targets around the switching process, such as ensuring switches are completed within five working days or less.

A total of nine suppliers are currently listed as signatories, these are:

• British Gas
• EDF
• Eon
• Octopus
• Outfox the Market
• Ovo
• Shell
• So Energy
• Scottish Power

In the latest results, which are for Q3 2023, Outfox the Market is revealed to be the only retailer which failed to hit all of its targets after completing just under 80% of switches in 5 working days or less against a target of 98%.

As a result of its failure the Leicester-based supplier has been moved to Stage 1 of the ESG Compliance Process.

In stage 1, a signatory would submit a summary of the reason for not meeting the target, when they expect the issue to be resolved, and where relevant the actions to be taken to resolve it.

The supplier expects to be fully compliant in the next quarter.

It is not the first time that Outfox the Market has been non-compliant with the scheme.

In Q1 2023 Outfox was moved to stage 1 after failing to submit data for the quarter in a timely manner. It was however moved out of stage 1 in the second quarter of 2023.

Last year it was revealed that in Q2 of 2023 all suppliers hit or exceeded the ESG’s KPIs, the first time that all retailers have met their KPIs since they were updated in 2022.