Consultation Hub

This site will help you find, share and participate in consultations run by the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

For more information on government consultations, or see a list of consultations across government, visit GOV.UK.

Open Consultations

Closed Consultations

  • Towards a more innovative energy retail market: A Call for Evidence

    As the main interface between consumers and the energy system, the energy retail market has the potential to play a positive role in supporting decarbonisation and ensuring that consumers see the benefits. However, if this is to happen, we need to unlock significantly more innovation in the market....

    Closed 18 September 2023

  • Domestic consumers with non-domestic energy contracts

    This call for evidence aims to increase our understanding of domestic consumers who receive their energy via a non-domestic contract (defined as contracts which are typically used to serve non-residential properties, such as businesses or charities), the reasons for those arrangements and what...

    Closed 18 September 2023

  • Energy Company Obligation: SAP and RdSAP Amendments

    The Energy Company Obligation: SAP and RdSAP Amendments consultation sets out proposals for mid-scheme amendments to the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) schemes, ECO4 and the Great British (GB) Insulation Scheme, both of which will run until March 2026. Read the...

    Closed 11 September 2023

  • Price-based competitive allocation for low carbon hydrogen production: call for evidence

    Based on feedback we have decided to extend the deadline for this call for evidence by a week to 11 August 2023, to allow more time for responses. In the British Energy Security Strategy (BESS) we set out our aim to hold annual allocation rounds for electrolytic hydrogen moving to price-based...

    Closed 11 August 2023

  • Strategy and Policy Statement for Energy Policy in Great Britain

    This is the consultation for the Strategy and Policy Statement for Energy Policy in Great Britain, published in line with section 135 of the Energy Act 2013. This statement sets out government’s strategic priorities for energy policy, the policy outcomes to be achieved and the roles and...

    Closed 2 August 2023

We Asked, You Said, We Did

Here are some of the issues we have consulted on and their outcomes. See all outcomes

We asked

We invited views on how to improve the UK’s product safety framework. The government is committed to ensuring that only safe products can be placed on the market now and in the future. Effective product safety regulation is essential for public protection, ensuring fair competition, consumer confidence and supporting innovative and safe products to reach the market. Government also has the opportunity to regulate product safety in a way that supports our Net Zero ambitions. 

You said

We received 158 responses from interested parties. A summary of the responses is included in the government response document.

Based on what we heard from respondents, while the current framework has strengths, it is facing significant and growing challenges and needs ambitious significant reform to be more adaptable and capable of responding to accelerating change. Government recognises the need for a long-term approach and for there to be regulatory change, to fully address the challenges raised by respondents.

We did

In the coming months we intend to consult on an ambitious and multi-faceted reform programme, with priorities including helping businesses to understand their legal obligations by ensuring our future framework is as simple, consistent, and risk proportionate as possible. We will also consider how product safety processes and testing requirements could become more risk based, addressing the impact of the changes brought by e-Commerce to the product safety framework, including gaps in enforcement powers that have emerged with the rise of new technology and business models.

Ensuring that the future framework takes full advantage of the UK having left the EU, is adaptable and responsive to the challenges of the future will require legislative change. We value the expertise and insights that stakeholders have offered as part of this exercise to inform our review, and we will continue to work with them as we develop our evidence base, with a view to putting forward proposals for consultation in due course.

In addition to looking at longer term reform, the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is taking immediate actions, in particular to address safety risks from products being sold online. This includes issuing a warning to UK consumers, highlighting the product safety risks when shopping online and leading a programme of work focusing on the safety and compliance of goods sold by third-party sellers on online marketplaces.

We asked

We invited views on removing the requirement for offshore oil and gas operators to make relevant documents available for public inspection at a specified address, where the effects of coronavirus related restrictions on movement meant that it is was not reasonably practicable for the public to access documents in this way. We proposed that the offshore oil and gas operators instead made the documents available on a publicly accessible website.

You said

We received 3 responses from interested parties. You queried that while websites which will host the documents may not be in the purview of the regulations, but will be delivering what amounts to a public service, if these websites would meet web accessibility standards required of public service websites.

We did

In addition to the offshore oil and gas operators making the documents available on their websites BEIS would consider making the documents available on our website which does meet web accessibility standards required of public service websites.

We asked

We sought views on the draft Co-ordination of Regulatory Enforcement Regulations 2017 which include measures to ensure that Primary Authority can operate from 1 October 2017 when the scheme is extended and simplified by provisions in the Enterprise Act 2016.  We also asked for views on replacing the ‘categories’ system for defining the scope of partnerships.

You said

We received 64 formal responses and also obtained feedback from around 240 stakeholders who attended engagement events held during the consultation period.  

Stakeholders were broadly supportive of the measures in the draft regulations. There was a wider range of views on the proposed new approach for determining the scope of partnerships.

We did

As a result of the consultation responses and wider stakeholder feedback we have amended the draft regulations. 

We have also produced draft revised Primary Authority Statutory Guidance. This reflects and clarifies the changes to Primary Authority introduced by the Enterprise Act 2016 and the new secondary legislation. It also describes how the new approach to defining partnerships will work in practice. 

The full Government response is published at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/unlocking-the-potential-of-primary-authority