Equality and diversity

As a public body, we publish regular information about what our equality objectives are and how we're meeting them.

Our duties under the Equality Act 2010

Under the Equality Act 2010, Ofgem has a duty to: 

• end unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• advance equality of opportunity
• foster good relations between groups of people regardless of their:
  • age
  • disability
  • gender reassignment
  • pregnancy and maternity
  • ethnicity
  • religion or belief
  • sex
  • sexual orientation
  • marriage and civil partnership status

Our main objective is to protect the interests of current and future consumers.

Our priorities

Our current corporate enduring priorities are to:

• deliver efficiently and fairly distributed energy costs
• ensure there are enhanced customer service protections for vulnerable people
• provide a secure energy supply for consumers

Our principal objective also includes the consumer interest in the Secretary of State meeting their net zero duties. Fulfilling this duty also needs us to better understand the full range of consumer interests in the transition to net zero. This will help to deliver a fair and cost-effective transition that works for them.

In 2023 we published a Consumer Interest Framework, which helps to explain what this principle means in practice. Our Multiyear Strategy contains more information about this.

Fair prices 

• Costs are efficient and fairly distributed.
• Prevent undue price discrimination.
• Support action to minimise consumer welfare (for example fuel poverty and self-disconnection).

Quality and standards

• Customer services throughout energy supply chain are accessible, transparent, and responsive.
• Consumers are suitably empowered and protected from harm.
• Enhanced protections for the vulnerable are in place.

Low-cost transition

• Sustainable, carbon-free energy and associated infrastructure at least cost to consumers (and taxpayers).
• Support consumers to make greener choices.
• Offer fair rewards for their contributions to the system.

Resilience

• Consumers have secure supply and trust that industry participants are resilient to market shocks.
• The sector attracts enough long-term investment to delivery consumer interests.
• We will use insights to inform development of external policies, services and programmes, from:
  • diverse stakeholders
  • customers
  • employees 

Ofgem equality publications

We also have set out our equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) objectives in our 2022 EDI Strategy.

This has 3 strategic pillars. We will: 

• ensure we have a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the diversity of the population
• create an inclusive culture where we respect diversity and value our differences
• support improvements to EDI across the wider energy sector 

We published an update to the strategy in 2023.

Employee information

We are committed to improving staff representation from low-income backgrounds.

Our workforce composition is published in our EDI dashboard.

We have also started collecting data on socio-economic diversity.

We also report progress in reducing the Gender Pay Gap in Ofgem to the UK government.

Organisations we work with

• 50:50 project
• Energy UK’s Pride in Energy Group
• POWERful Women Initiative
• Tackling Inclusion and Diversity in Energy (TIDE) Taskforce 

We are a Disability Confident Employer.

Our employee networks

We have many EDI networks that contribute to our diversity goals. These include:

• race and ethnicity
• disability
• age
• lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender + (LGBT+)
• mental health
• women’s
• Muslim
• Jewish
• social mobility