The Gas (Extent of Domestic Supply Licences) Order 1997

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order provides for the remaining stages in the introduction of competition in the supply of gas through pipes to premises at which the rate of supply is not expected to exceed 2,500 therms a year (“domestic premises”).

It enables the Director General of Gas Supply (“the Director”) to determine the “relevant date”, which is to be no earlier than 1st April 1998 and (by virtue of section 6(2) of the Gas Act 1995) no later than 1st January 1999, from which any licensed gas supplier may supply domestic premises anywhere in Great Britain subject only to any restrictions in his particular licence. It also enables the Director to determine a sequence of dates in advance of the relevant date, from which gas suppliers are permitted to supply domestic premises in the different areas specified in the Schedule to the Order.

Articles 4–6 of the Order make provision for the Director to give notice of a proposed determination, to take account of representations made in response to the notice, and to publish a notice after the determination is made which states its effect. Similar provision was made in articles 4–6 of the Gas (Extent of Domestic Supply Licences) Order 1996, under which competition in the supply of gas was permitted in parts of the south-west and south-east of England and which also provided for the determination of the relevant date. As no determination will now be made under that Order, articles 4–6 are revoked by article 7 of this Order.