Rachel Reeves says ‘hundreds of letters sent’ as petrol rules broken | UK | News
It comes after the Press Association’s analysis of data submitted to Fuel Finder revealed many sites were still not providing petrol prices despite being required to do so for more than five months. Of the sites providing data, 1,751 last reported a gas price change more than a week ago; These include 96 sites that have not provided updates for at least a month.
Ms Reeves said: “Our Fuel Finder increases transparency and reduces prices for drivers, but it is clear that some businesses are failing to do this. This is not right. I have authorized the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate and they have issued hundreds of warning letters to businesses that do not comply.”
“If these businesses continue to disappoint their customers by not communicating price changes, the CMA has assured me they will intervene and impose fines.”
All courts in the UK have been legally required to report price changes to the database within half an hour since 2 February. Ministers expected the launch of Fuel Finder to increase competition between retailers, saving car-owning households an average of £40 a year and resulting in lower prices.
Despite oil prices returning to pre-war levels, average oil prices in the UK remain around 19 pence per liter more expensive than before the conflict in the Middle East. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously described the scheme as a “tool for finding cheap fuel” and praised it for “forcing petrol stations to publish live prices” to make it easier for motorists to “choose the lowest price”.
PA analysis showed that 2,229 of the 7,765 open forecourts for which Fuel Finder data was available were supermarket filling stations, of which 410 had not uploaded a price change for at least a week as of Monday. Approximately 226 preliminary courts registered with Fuel Finder either did not submit data or were listed as temporarily closed.
Fuel Finder was created on advice from the CMA in July 2023 after it found that competition between retailers had weakened since 2019, with drivers paying nearly £1bn more for fuel at supermarkets in the previous year due to rising margins. The program is run by the Government and technology company VE3.
A CMA spokesman said: “The majority of petrol stations are now registered with the scheme and report their prices, helping motorists shop around and save money every time they fill up. We will take action when petrol stations do not comply with the law. Retailers must report price changes immediately, while some sites may change their prices less frequently due to their pricing strategies.”
The Petroleum Retailers Association, which represents independent tribunals, said smaller, rural areas that receive fuel deliveries only once a month may be among those that do not provide frequent price updates.
