Non-ministerial government department overview | |
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Preceding agencies |
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Jurisdiction | United Kingdom |
Headquarters | 9 Millbank, London, SW1P 3GE |
Employees | 761 |
Annual budget |
For 2015-16 Parliament approved through the Main Estimate: a gross resource budget of £89.500 million £50.6 million (2009-2010) |
Minister responsible | |
Non-ministerial government department executive |
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Website | www |
For 2015-16 Parliament approved through the Main Estimate: a gross resource budget of £89.500 million
The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), supporting the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (GEMA), is the government regulator for the electricity and downstream natural gas markets in Great Britain. It was formed by the merger of the Office of Electricity Regulation (OFFER) and Office of Gas Supply (Ofgas).
The Authority's powers and duties are largely provided for in statute (such as the Gas Act 1986, the Electricity Act 1989, the Utilities Act 2000, the Competition Act 1998, the Enterprise Act 2002 and the Energy Act 2004, the Energy Act 2008 and the Energy Act 2010) as well as arising from directly effective European Community legislation. Duties and functions concerning gas are set out in the Gas Act and those relating to electricity are set out in the Electricity Act.
Its primary duty is to protect the interests of consumers, where possible by promoting competition. The Authority‘s main objective is to protect existing and future consumers' interests in relation to gas conveyed through pipes and electricity conveyed by distribution or transmission systems. Consumers' interests are their interests taken as a whole, including their interests in the reduction of greenhouse gases and in the security of the supply of gas and electricity to them. Since 2010 the Authority has imposed nearly £100 million in fines and redress levies against energy suppliers, including a £12 million redress levy on E.ON in May 2014, and a £1 million redress levy on British Gas in July 2014.
The Gas and Electricity Markets Authority is governed by the Chairman David Gray, executive members as well as non-executive members.
Dermot Nolan was appointed Chief Executive of Ofgem in 2014.
Ofgem is divided into Ofgem (Smarter Grids & Governance, Markets, Sustainable Development and Group Finance Director) and Ofgem E-Serve containing Group Functions: Environmental Programmes, Operations/HR, Information Management and Technology, Finance and Risk Management, and Commercial: Offshore, Legal, Smart Metering Delivery, New Schemes Development.