Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill — New Clause 1 — Cap Difference Between Cheapest Rate and Most Expensive Standard Variable Rates — 30 Apr 2018 at 20:15

Andrew Murrison MP, South West Wiltshire voted not to allow ministers to cap the difference between a gas or electricity supplier's cheapest advertised rate and their most expensive standard variable or default rate.

The majority of MPs voted not allow ministers to cap the difference between a gas or electricity supplier's cheapest advertised rate and their most expensive standard variable or default rate. The cap on the difference (known as a relative cap, or differential cap) would have come into force when an overall cap ceased to be in-force.

MPs were considering the Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill[1].

The Bill sought to introduce a temporary price cap on certain energy tariffs for domestic customers in Great Britain[2], at least until 2020, and possibly until 2023.

The proposed new clause rejected in this vote was titled: Ongoing relative tariff differential and stated:

  • (1) The Secretary of State may, during the term of the tariff cap conditions being in place, develop, ready for implementation, a relative tariff differential.
  • (2) A relative tariff differential is a requirement on supply licence holders that the difference between the cheapest advertised rate and the most expensive standard variable or default rate shall be no more than a specified proportion of the cheapest advertised rate.
  • (3) The Authority will be responsible for setting the proportion referred to in subsection (2).
  • (4) The relative tariff differential shall take effect on the termination of the tariff cap conditions.”

The rejected new clause was accompanied by the following explanatory statement:

  • This new clause would allow the Secretary of State to develop requirements in relation to a differential between the cheapest and most expensive rates offered by suppliers, to be put into effect after the termination of the tariff cap.

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee considered the proposals[3] and concluded a relative cap risked substantially increasing prices for many consumers and more so than an absolute cap. There are differing views of the potential impacts of a relative cap as proposed by the amendment rejected in this vote.[3] (For this reason this vote is not taken into account when making statements on how MPs have voted on making energy prices more affordable).

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Debate in Parliament |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Con278 (+2 tell) 0088.6%
DUP9 0090.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent1 1033.3%
Lab0 123 (+2 tell)048.4%
LDem0 000.0%
Total:288 125069.2%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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