Annulment Definition
Summary
Annulments are defined in the interpretations schedule as: Annulled means that a Registration has been annulled by the Losing Supplier pursuant to an Annulment Request. “Annulment” and similar expressions shall be interpreted accordingly. Annulment Request means the Registration Service Request from the Losing Supplier to terminate the progress of a Registration in accordance with Paragraph 10 of the Registration Services Schedule. The Registration Services Schedule does not define an annulment but sets out in para 10: A Losing Supplier must only submit an Annulment Request in respect of a Registration where the Losing Supplier is permitted to do so in accordance with its Energy Supply Licence. Unfortunately the Energy Supply Licence does not refer to annulments, making this term not clearly defined. REC Performance Assurance (RPA) have identified Parties using annulments when they should use other processes. The lack of a clear definition of what an annulment is could be a contributing factor to this.
Latest update and next planned activity
Date of latest update
Latest Update
08/11/2024 - This Change Proposal has been implemented as part of the November 2024 REC Release.
Impacts Overview
Impacted Consumers
Electricity
Gas
Domestic
Non-Domestic
Impacted REC Parties and Market Participants
Energy Supplier
Other
Impacted REC Documents
Schedule 1 - Interpretations and Definitions
Schedule 23 - Registration Services
Priority and rationale
Standard
Priority last updated on 29 May 2026
Solution development
Problem Statement
Parties are using annulments when they should use other processes, in particular the objection process. The lack of a clear definition of what an annulment is could be a contributing factor to this.
No documents available.
Change Plan
Preliminary Change Report and Consultation Issued
Completed
Start:
17 May 2023Due:
31 May 2024Completion:
31 May 2024Final Change Report Issued
Completed
Start:
31 May 2024Due:
05 Jul 2024Completion:
05 Jul 2024Responsible Committee Decision
Not Started
Start:
05 Jul 2024Due:
16 Jul 2024Completion:
Authority Determination Requested
Not Started
Start:
16 Jul 2024Due:
17 Jul 2024Completion:
Original submission
Change details
Anton Moden - REC Code Manager
17 May 2023
Change details
Annulment Definition
Annulments are defined in the interpretations schedule as: Annulled means that a Registration has been annulled by the Losing Supplier pursuant to an Annulment Request. “Annulment” and similar expressions shall be interpreted accordingly. Annulment Request means the Registration Service Request from the Losing Supplier to terminate the progress of a Registration in accordance with Paragraph 10 of the Registration Services Schedule. The Registration Services Schedule does not define an annulment but sets out in para 10: A Losing Supplier must only submit an Annulment Request in respect of a Registration where the Losing Supplier is permitted to do so in accordance with its Energy Supply Licence. Unfortunately the Energy Supply Licence does not refer to annulments, making this term not clearly defined.
The performance assurance team have identified Parties using annulments when they should use other processes. The lack of a clear definition of what an annulment is could be a contributing factor to this.
That annulments are clearly linked to the criteria in the licence that they relate to so when to annul is unambiguous. This reference should work even if paragraph numbers in SLC are changed. The relevant SLC are: SLC14.2(d) and 14.4(c) in the gas supply licence (the same para referenced in elec) para 14.10 is relevant too.
Hopefully I have included all of the information required - a housekeeping change to make the term annulment unambiguously defined in line with the pre-existing intention is the key goal here.
Impacts
Electricity, Gas, Domestic Prepayment, Domestic Credit, Microbusiness, Small and Medium Enterprise (SME), Industrial and Commercial (I&C)
Switching experience, Trust and confidence
-
Schedule 1 - Interpretations and Definitions, Schedule 23 - Registration Services
-
No details provided
-
No details provided
-
No details provided
Unsure if this is required
No details provided
-
No details provided
None
Energy Suppliers
Switching intermediaries such as TPIs are affected by this.
No details provided
None identified
No
No details provided
Priority & timing
No
This should be a simple housekeeping change that directly affects consumers so we think that this is appropriate to take an expedited housekeeping route, whether that is urgency or not I am unsure.
No
No
No details provided
-
Activity
Implementation Date has been updated to 08 Nov 2024.
james.hardy has been allocated as Lead Analyst.
Orphaned SME: Lead Assurance Analyst has been allocated as SME.