Energy Ombudsman may FINALLY be able to enforce its decisions against energy companies

The Energy Ombudsman CAN'T currently enforce its own decisions

The Energy Ombudsman is a free service for consumers to use, which is designed to help you resolve disputes with your energy supplier/s. It's part of the Trust Alliance Group, which comprises several businesses that were previously part of the Ombudsman Services – including the Communications Ombudsman.

However, while most firms will abide by the Ombudsman's ruling, not all do all of the time. And, unlike the similarly named Financial Ombudsman Service, the Energy Ombudsman doesn't currently have legally binding powers, which means it can't enforce the decisions it makes.

We've campaigned for years at MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) for ombudsman reform – urging the Government and regulators to ensure ombudsmen have legally binding powers or lose their titles. We've also called for the current eight-week limit before you can refer your complaint to an ombudsman to be reduced.

Martin Lewis: 'For too long the Energy Ombudsman has been a semi-toothless tiger'

The Energy Ombudsman will be able to force firms to pay compensation

On 17 June 2026, the Government published its official response to its 2025 consultation – which MSE fed into – on strengthening the Energy Ombudsman's powers.

One of the key changes put forward by the Government is to increase the Energy Ombudsman's enforcement powers by enabling it to force suppliers to pay compensation to consumers for implementing redress late or not at all. This will be compensation for inconvenience caused, paid on top of any initial reward recommended. However, further details are scant at this stage.

The consultation also says the Government is "clarifying and strengthening the route for consumers to pursue remedies from suppliers through the courts". It says it will make clear in legislation that this option is available where decisions have not been implemented.

However, again, any further detail is lacking. We had asked if this means you can apply to a court to have the award enforced, but without re-litigating the case – in the same way as you can with decisions from the Financial Ombudsman Service. The Government only says these measures will be progressed "as parliamentary time allows".

Your energy supplier will need to respond to complaints more quickly

Currently, once you've raised a complaint with your energy company, it has eight weeks to resolve it. If you receive a final decision or deadlock letter, or eight weeks have passed and your complaint hasn't been resolved, you can then register your dispute with the Energy Ombudsman. The Energy Ombudsman will then come back to you within six weeks.

In future, if you've given consent, your complaint will be automatically transferred to the Energy Ombudsman if progress isn't being made via your energy supplier, or when the complaint's been open for six weeks. The Energy Ombudsman will then be given four weeks to respond.

This means the total wait time will fall from 14 weeks to 10 weeks. The Government has also said energy regulator Ofgem may consider whether the proposed six-week window is "appropriate and delivering consumer benefit", as well as continuing to consider whether a four-week window is more appropriate.

The changes now need to be implemented by the Energy Ombudsman and Ofgem, though the Government says it expects them to be implemented "as soon as reasonably possible" and "certainly no later" than Royal Assent for the new Energy Independence Bill.

Why MSE has long campaigned for ombudsman reform

• Our 'Sharper teeth: The consumer need for ombudsman reform' report, published in 2017, called for relevant bodies to impose 'gold standard' criteria for ombudsmen, including that they must be created by law or have their powers underpinned by law, and for ineffective ombudsmen to be stripped of the right to use the word in their title.
  
  The report also called for the time consumers wait to escalate their complaint to an ombudsman to be cut from eight weeks.

• Our 'Justice Delayed' report, published in 2019, reiterated our calls for the eight-week wait time to refer your complaint to an ombudsman to be slashed by at least half. At the time, Martin said: "It allows bad situations in our rapid world to snowball out of control, having the potential to destroy people's finances and wellbeing before an ombudsman can even start looking at what's going on."

• We've also repeatedly reiterated these calls over the years. In March 2025, Martin told the Commons Energy Committee that "the Energy Ombudsman isn't really an ombudsman. The Energy Ombudsman is an appointed alternative dispute resolution process". Martin added at the time: "We don't have a protected term 'ombudsman' in this country. We absolutely should do. There are ombudsmen out there who really aren't ombudsmen and shouldn't be allowed to call themselves ombudsmen."
  
  Katie Watts, head of campaigns and policy at MSE, also told the Committee that legal options are the only alternative route for consumers when suppliers refuse to comply, yet many feel that pursuing a resolution in the courts is not worth their time, money or stress. She said at the time: "There is no point in having the Ombudsman scheme if nobody can hold the energy firms to account."