The Gas and Electricity (Consumer Complaints Handling Standards) Regulations 2008

PART 1 E+W+S General

Citation, commencement and extent E+W+S

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Gas and Electricity (Consumer Complaints Handling Standards) Regulations 2008 and shall come into force on 1 October 2008.

(2) These Regulations do not apply to Northern Ireland.

Interpretation E+W+S

2.—(1) In these Regulations

“the Act” means the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007;

“the Authority” means the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority established by section 1 of the Utilities Act 2000 M1 ;

[F1 “Citizens Advice” means the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux;]

[F1 “Citizens Advice Scotland” means the Scottish Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux;]

“complaint” means any expression of dissatisfaction made to an organisation, related to any one or more of its products, its services or the manner in which it has dealt with any such expression of dissatisfaction, where a response is either provided by or on behalf of that organisation at the point at which contact is made or a response is explicitly or implicitly required or expected to be provided thereafter;

“complainant” means a person making a consumer complaint;

“complaints handling procedure” means a procedure which complies with Regulation 3 and which sets out how a consumer complaint can be made to, and will be handled and progressed by, each regulated provider;

[F2 “the consumer advice scheme” means the consumer advice scheme supported by Citizens Advice or Citizens Advice Scotland, or by them jointly, under article 2 of the Public Bodies (The Office of Fair Trading Transfer of Consumer Advice Scheme Function and Modification of Enforcement Functions) Order 2013 S.I. 2013/783;]

[F3 “consumer advocacy body” means Citizens Advice or Citizens Advice Scotland;]

“consumer complaint” means a complaint, other than a network outage report, which is made against a regulated provider either (a) by a person in that person's capacity as a relevant consumer in relation to that regulated provider; or (b) by a person acting on behalf of such a relevant consumer;

“consumer complaints report” means the report which is to be prepared and published in accordance with Regulation 11;

F4 ...

F4 ...

“domestic consumer” means a person supplied or requiring to be supplied with gas or electricity at domestic premises (but excluding such person insofar as he is supplied or requires to be supplied with gas or electricity at premises other than domestic premises);

“domestic premises” means premises at which a supply of gas or electricity is taken or to be taken wholly or mainly for domestic purposes;

“existing consumer complaint” means a consumer complaint which has been received by a regulated provider and whose details have been or should have been recorded by that regulated provider in accordance with Regulation 4(1);

“micro business consumer” means any person, other than a domestic consumer, who a regulated provider knows or, acting reasonably, considers falls within the description of consumers who are covered by a Section 47 Order;

“network outage” means an interruption to a relevant consumer's supply of gas or electricity;

“network outage report” means a complaint or other contact made by a relevant consumer or a person acting on behalf of a relevant consumer to a regulated provider where that complaint or contact consists wholly or primarily in the reporting to that regulated provider of the existence of a network outage;

“Office of Fair Trading” means the body of that name which is established by section 1 of the Enterprise Act 2002 M2 ;

“qualifying redress scheme” means a redress scheme which is approved by the Authority in accordance with section 49 of the Act or which is administered and designated in accordance with section 47(1)(b) of the Act;

“regulated provider” means any one or more of the following as the context requires:

(a)

a person holding a licence under section 7A(1) of the Gas Act 1986 M3 ;

(b)

a person holding a licence under section 7(2) of the Gas Act 1986 M4 ;

(c)

a person holding a licence under section 6(1)(d) of the Electricity Act 1989 M5 ;

(d)

a person holding a licence under section 6(1)(c) of the Electricity Act 1989;

“relevant consumer” means any one or more of the following as the context requires:

(a)

a person who is a domestic consumer or a micro business consumer in relation to gas supplied by a regulated provider;

(b)

a person who is a domestic consumer or a micro business consumer in relation to electricity supplied by a regulated provider;

(c)

a person who is a domestic consumer or a micro business consumer in relation to services provided by a regulated provider;

“resolved complaint” means a consumer complaint in respect of which there remains no outstanding action to be taken by the regulated provider and which has been resolved to the satisfaction of the relevant consumer who made that consumer complaint or on whose behalf that consumer complaint was made;

“section 12 and 13 complaint” means a complaint to which any one or more of section 12(3), section 12(4), section 13(2) or section 13(3) of the Act applies or apply;

“Section 47 Order” means an Order which has been made by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 47 of the Act and which is in effect;

“specified time period” means the time period specified in a qualifying redress scheme as the maximum time period that a regulated provider has to resolve a consumer complaint before the relevant consumer who made that consumer complaint, or on whose behalf that consumer complaint was made, becomes entitled to refer that consumer complaint to a qualifying redress scheme;

“vulnerable consumer” means a person who is vulnerable for the purposes of section 12(2) of the Act; and

“working day” means any day other than a Saturday, a Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a day which is a bank holiday within the meaning of the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971 M6 ;

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in reg. 2(1) inserted (1.4.2014) by The Public Bodies (Abolition of the National Consumer Council and Transfer of the Office of Fair Trading’s Functions in relation to Estate Agents etc) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/631), art. 1(3), Sch. 1 para. 23(2)(a) (with Sch. 1 para. 28, Sch. 2 paras. 13-15)

F2 Words in reg. 2(1) inserted (1.4.2014) by The Public Bodies (Abolition of the National Consumer Council and Transfer of the Office of Fair Trading’s Functions in relation to Estate Agents etc) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/631), art. 1(3), Sch. 1 para. 23(2)(b) (with Sch. 1 para. 28, Sch. 2 paras. 13-15)

F3 Words in reg. 2(1) inserted (1.4.2014) by The Public Bodies (Abolition of the National Consumer Council and Transfer of the Office of Fair Trading’s Functions in relation to Estate Agents etc) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/631), art. 1(3), Sch. 1 para. 23(2)(c) (with Sch. 1 para. 28, Sch. 2 paras. 13-15)

F4 Words in reg. 2(1) omitted (1.4.2014) by virtue of The Public Bodies (Abolition of the National Consumer Council and Transfer of the Office of Fair Trading’s Functions in relation to Estate Agents etc) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/631), art. 1(3), Sch. 1 para. 23(2)(d) (with Sch. 1 para. 28, Sch. 2 paras. 13-15)

Marginal Citations

M1 2000 c.27

M2 2002 c.40

M3 1986 c.44: section 7A(1) was inserted by the Gas Act 1995 (c.45), section 5

M4 Section 7 was substituted by the Gas Act 1995 (c.45), section 5, and amended by the Utilities Act 2000 (c.27), section 76(3) and Schedule 6, paragraph 4

M5 1989 c.29: section 6 was substituted by the Utilities Act 2000 (c.27), section 30

M6 1971 c.80