Public Accounts Committee Launch Inquiry into Regulation of UK Broadband

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is responsible for examining the value for money of UK Government projects, programmes and service delivery, has announced the launch of a new inquiry that will examine the effectiveness of current regulation when applied to the water, energy and broadband internet connectivity sectors.

The new PAC inquiry is intended to complement a related inquiry by the National Audit Office (NAO), which is already busy assessing whether regulation in water, energy and broadband is working effectively. The NAO are due to publish their report this summer 2026, which will evaluate whether Ofwat, Ofgem and Ofcom have a clear understanding of the customer experience they want delivered, and a defined approach for achieving it.

The NAO’s report will also assess whether the regulators’ actions are ensuring that their expectations are being met and whether their approaches to addressing problems facing customers that are at higher risk of experiencing harm or detriment (e.g. vulnerable users and those on benefits) are working. Suffice to say that the PAC will use the outcome of that to support their own inquiry, which will engage the regulators, MPs and industry directly in order to make recommendations.

At present this looks to be quite a broad inquiry, which will be overseen by the Chair of the Committee, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP. As such it’s a little difficult to do any expanded analysis until we know the outcome, although both will look at issues such as unfair treatment, poor service and unaffordable pricing.

In that sense, we hope the PAC and NAO will take a close look at Ofcom’s current policies on mid-contract pricing (here and here), which have improved pricing transparency, albeit at the cost of some fairness in how annual hikes are being applied. For example, we see many larger providers applying the same flat c.£2 to £5 monthly increase to those who pay just c.£20 a month and those who pay c.£100 – disproportionately targeting those least able to afford it.

Speaking of which, in the 12 months to April/May 2024, the Competitions and Market Authority (CMA) conducted a survey that found 1 in 4 internet consumers, 1 in 5 energy consumers, and 1 in 13 water consumers experienced some form of consumer detriment which caused them stress, cost them money, or took up their time. Clearly some work left to do.

The PAC are taking evidence on these issues until 23.59 on Monday 1st June 2026 (submit here).