Chancellor Rachel Reeves has revealed that hundreds of UK petrol stations are under investigation for failing to report live price changes to the Government's Fuel Finder system, a scheme designed to help drivers save money. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has already dispatched hundreds of warning letters to businesses that are not complying with legal requirements to provide petrol prices to the price comparison database.
Investigation and Warning Letters
According to a Press Association analysis of data submitted to Fuel Finder, many sites have still not provided any petrol prices, despite this being mandatory for over five months. Of those that have submitted data, 1,751 last reported a petrol price change more than a week ago, including 96 that had not supplied an update for at least a month.
Ms Reeves stated: “Our Fuel Finder is increasing transparency and driving down prices for drivers, but it is clear some businesses are failing to do this. That is not right. I have given the Competition and Markets Authority powers to investigate, and they have issued hundreds of warning letters to businesses not complying. If these businesses continue to fail their customers by not reporting price changes, the CMA have assured me they will step in and issue fines.”
Legal Requirements and Expected Savings
Since February 2, all UK forecourts have been legally required to report price changes to the database within half an hour. When the scheme launched, ministers anticipated that Fuel Finder would save car-owning households an average of £40 per year by boosting competition among retailers, leading to lower prices.
Despite oil prices returning to pre-conflict levels, average petrol prices in the UK remain about 19p per litre higher than before the Middle East conflict. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer previously described the scheme as “the cheap fuel finder” and praised it for “forcing petrol stations to publish their live prices” to help drivers “choose the lowest price”.
Data Gaps and Non-Compliance
The PA analysis revealed that out of 7,765 open forecourts with available Fuel Finder data, 2,229 are supermarket filling stations. Of these, 410 had not uploaded a price change in at least a week as of Monday. Additionally, 226 forecourts registered on Fuel Finder have either not submitted any data or are listed as temporarily closed.
Fuel Finder was established following a CMA recommendation in July 2023, after the authority found that competition among retailers had weakened since 2019, with drivers paying nearly £1 billion more for fuel at supermarkets in the previous year due to increased margins. The scheme is operated by the Government in partnership with technology company VE3.
CMA and Industry Response
A CMA spokesperson commented: “The majority of petrol stations are now registered with the scheme and reporting their prices, helping motorists pocket savings every time they fill up by shopping around. We will take action when petrol stations fail to comply with the law. While retailers are required to report price changes promptly, some sites may change their prices less often due to their pricing strategy.”
The Petrol Retailers Association, representing independent forecourts, noted that smaller, rural sites that receive fuel deliveries only about once a month may be among those not providing frequent price updates.
