British Gas fined £9.5m for failures in billing system

The energy-industry watchdog today fined British Gas £9.5 million after a botched IT upgrade left tens of thousands of business customers with delayed and inaccurate bills.

Ofgem said the supplier “let customers down” when the introduction of a new IT system led to failings in registrations and billing processes.

Customer complaints “significantly increased” as a result and many were handled poorly or not on time, Ofgem concluded.

The regulator praised British Gas, owned by Centrica, for voluntarily reporting the matter but ruled it had not acted quickly enough to correct it.

Ofgem boss Dermot Nolan said the penalty “sends a strong reminder to all energy companies that they must treat consumers fairly at all times”.

British Gas has compensated some customers, reduced levels of delayed bills and contacted customers to explain the issue.

Others have been allowed to switch supplier despite being in debt, if the debt was related to a failure to produce a bill.