UK broadband customers get less protection than water and energy users
Key Points
- No Priority Services Register exists in telecoms, unlike water and energy
- No statutory body provides free independent advice to broadband customers
- Citizens Advice delivers over £25 million a year in benefits to energy customers
- MPs want a multi-sector "tell us once" register covering telecoms by September 2028
Broadband customers have no Priority Services Register and no statutory body providing free independent advice, unlike customers in water and energy, the Committee of Public Accounts said in a report published on Friday (11 September).
The Priority Services Register gives customers with additional communication, safety and access needs extra support from their utility company, with 34% of energy customers and 13% of water households signed up in 2024–25.
The committee found there is no equivalent in telecoms. Ofcom told MPs it instead requires providers to consider services for people in vulnerable circumstances and to register customers based on their needs.
Customer satisfaction among broadband users with a limiting condition was five percentage points lower than for consumers overall in 2024.
Citizens Advice told the committee that, as the statutory consumer advocate for energy, it delivers more than £25 million of benefits to energy customers every year, and that no such provision exists for telecoms.
The committee said this leaves consumers in vulnerable circumstances with limited support when navigating the broadband market. MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis told MPs that switching is key to securing the best broadband deals, and that vulnerable customers find this particularly difficult.
The report said it is not clear why statutory advice exists for water and energy customers but not for broadband customers, given the role broadband plays in allowing people to participate in the modern economy.
Ofcom told the committee that a multi-sector register proposed by the former Department for Business and Trade in May 2024 could be helpful.
The committee recommended that the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade introduce a multi-sector “tell us once” Priority Services Register that covers telecoms by September 2028.
It also asked the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to set out its position on introducing a statutory consumer advocate for the telecoms sector.
