Anyone found guilty of rigging wholesale gas and electricity prices could face up to two years in jail, under proposals put forward by Energy & Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey yesterday (6 July).

These laws would give UK energy regulators new powers to prosecute people suspected of abusing the energy market. Under the current regulations, UK energy regulators can only investigate and fine people found breaching the rules.

Under the new laws, however, it would be a criminal offence to fix the price of energy at an artificial level or use insider information to buy or sell energy on the wholesale market. It would also be an offence to make misleading claims or conceal facts about wholesale energy prices to manipulate the market – especially if it could affect competition in the energy market.

The government wants to introduce these new sanctions to safeguard consumers from any unfair practices.

“Manipulating the energy market is absolutely unacceptable, and these proposals provide a stronger deterrent more in line with the approach taken in the financial markets,” said Mr Davey.

“The government is doing everything it can to help consumers by increasing market competition to drive prices down. We have also set up the first ever annual competition assessment, which has led to the first referral of the sector to the competition authorities.”

Rachel Fletcher, senior partner of markets at Ofgem, said: “Ofgem has a track record for taking strong action against companies that break the rules, and we want the strongest possible deterrents in place to guard against market manipulation and insider trading. We put forward the case to government for greater powers to take action if needed, and we welcome this consultation.”

Pending the consultation and Parliamentary process, the proposed new criminal sanctions could come into force in spring 2015.