Energy firms pay more than £10m in fines

Households and regulators were paid more than £10 million in compensation by energy firms this year, new data from watchdog Ofgem reveals.

Enforcement action saw £4m handed to customers in compensation, £4.6m to Ofgem’s Voluntary Redress Fund and a further £1.5m to the regulator in additional payments.

The data, compiled by auto-switching service Switchcraft, also shows Npower and SSE were censured twice during the financial year, with British Gas and EDF getting slapped wrists once each.

Treating customers unfairly, incorrect charges, switching issues and payment failures to the regulator were the biggest causes for investigations.

In total, 15 cases were completed in April 2018 to March 2019 with seven recording “no formal finding of breach”..