Set up Independent Pricing Watchdog to Stop Excessive Prices at the Fuel Pumps

When oil prices change, UK drivers have absolutely no idea what they will pay at the pumps. It is never ever the same! There is no consistency, logic or clarity to the way prices are calculated. If gas, electricity, water & telecoms get pricing bodies, why not motorists too? We need ‘PumpWatch’.

FairfuelUK found that on Nov 23, oil was priced £45 per barrel. In the last 2yrs, when oil hit this price on 30 different occasions, pump prices varied bizarrely from £1.35 to £1.18 for diesel and £1.26 to £1.16 for petrol. Between Oct 3rd to Nov 23rd, oil fell 31.33% from £66 to £45/barrel. But in the same period, retail profits/litre rocketed by 139% for petrol and 205% for diesel. In Oct 2018, nearly £1/2bn in wholesale fuel price falls were held back from the economy and consumers at the pumps.

The Government believes that it is essential that consumers get a fair deal and that any fall in the price of oil should be passed through to lower retail prices without unnecessary delay. This can most effectively be achieved through an open and competitive market, which drives prices down. We will therefore continue to make it clear to industry that we expect that savings resulting from lower oil prices are passed on to customers.

This framework delivers some of the lowest pre-tax prices in Europe for both petrol and diesel for the UK. Government works closely with all stakeholders to ensure that the domestic market remains highly competitive – addressing regulatory burdens, ensuring access to fuels from around the world as well as domestic production. This includes ensuring that UK refineries have open access to a range of crudes from the international markets as well as those produced by our policy of maximising economic recovery from the UK Continental Shelf.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) monitors and publishes weekly national average pump prices which can be accessed online:

www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/oil-and-petroleum-products-weekly-statistics

Movements in pump prices are primarily driven by crude oil prices; though are also influenced by a range of other factors including refining capacity, stock levels, biofuels costs, distribution costs and retail margins. The sterling-dollar exchange rate also has an impact. Crude oil and oil products are traded in US dollars, and so when the value of pound sterling decreases against the dollar, oil becomes more expensive for UK consumers.