Ofgem expands investigation into British Gas Business

Ofgem has expanded its investigation into whether British Gas Business has complied with the conditions of its gas and electricity supply licenses, in response to information provided by the supplier.

The regulator confirmed it will now consider whether British Gas has been complying with three further obligations around complaints handling for its business customers.

It emphasised that the expansion does not imply any findings about non-compliance. The regulator could not give a timescale for the investigation.

The investigation into British Gas Business was launched in October 2015, following claims the company had not complied with the requirements of its gas and electricity supply licences, by wrongfully blocking the transfer of non-domestic customers, dealing with billing issues incorrectly and mis-treatment of micro business consumers.

British Gas blamed some of the problems on a new billing system, installed in 2014, and told Utility Week in October last year: “We invested in a new billing system so we could improve the level of service we provide to our business customers.

“This was a major undertaking which hasn’t gone as smoothly as we would have liked. [We’d] like to apologise to the business customers who’ve been affected. While we’ve now resolved most of the issues, we know there’s still work to do. We will give Ofgem our full cooperation during its investigation.”