The government is inviting bids to run its Fuel Finder database, an initiative aimed at increasing price transparency for motorists. It has also given further details on the timetable for its roll out by the end of the year.
Ministers late last week set a March 17 deadline for tenders and plan to appoint a supplier to deliver the aggregation service by April.
Trials of Fuel Finder will begin in the summer with all the UK’s 8,300 forecourt operators expected to register by December 1 and report their prices from the start of 2026.
The government says this schedule gives petrol stations “sufficient time to prepare for the reporting requirements” before Fuel Finder is launched to the public.
Under the scheme, previously referred to as Pumpwatch, forecourts are likely to be required to report details of any price changes, as well as when any fuel is unavailable, to the administrator within 30 minutes. Either individual filling stations or head offices will be able to pass on the information.
The four-year contract has an estimated value of £3 million, with the successful bidder expected to “collect, aggregate and securely store” business data from forecourt operators, and share it with registered third parties “in near-real time” to deliver to consumers.
The supplier will also have to “provide a mechanism for consumers to report inaccuracies” in the data, and “resolve or escalate any reported or suspected non-compliance” by petrol stations to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Plans for the Fuel Finder service, which will be overseen by the CMA, were announced by the previous Conservative government in 2023, with the incoming Labour administration confirming it would continue the initiative.
It says Fuel Finder is “an important step towards creating a fairer, more transparent, and competitive road fuels market that delivers for and empowers drivers”.
