The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has awarded the contract for the nationwide Fuel Finder database to a company called VE3 Global Ltd, it was announced this week.
The £3m scheme will require all 8,300 UK petrol stations to register with VE3 Global’s systems and inform the company what fuel grades they have in stock and how much they are charging for each grade, with price updates having to be reported within 30 minutes of them changing.
Forecourts will be able to report changes in fuel prices and grade availability either by an automated Application Programming Interface (API); by SMS text messaging; or by manual entry on a website. Sites can report changes to VE3 Global individually, or head offices can collate data from multiple forecourts before sharing this with the company.
Data created by the scheme will then be accessible “openly and freely to all third parties that wish to access it” according to DESNZ, either via API, or a flat file’ (ie a single table of data) that will be shared twice daily. Fuel prices and availability are then expected to be shared with motorists having been published by price-comparison sites and sat-nav providers.
VE3 Global has now been appointed to run the scheme. The firm was incorporated in 2010 and is listed at Companies House as providing information technology consultancy activities. VE3 Global’s website details it has expertise in 40 different areas including mergers & acquisitions, quantum computing, the Internet of Things, UX & UI services, change management, blockchain, and AI and cybersecurity. The site also details that VE3 Global works across the public sector, banking and fintech, energy and utilities, media and entertainment, travel and hospitality, telecom and mobility, and three other sectors.
As of 7 May 2025, VE3 Global has 47 ‘associated members’ listed on its LinkedIn page (where it is known simply as ‘VE3’), with eight of these employees said to live in London, and 38 in India. The company is currently recruiting for 10 roles on its website, with six of these based in Pune, a city in Maharashtra state in India, while a further two roles are advertised for London, and two for Ireland. Of these advertisements, seven went live on 5 or 6 May 2025 shortly after it became known VE3 had won the Fuel Finder tender.
Companies House details that VE3 Global’s registered address is in London, with this address being the same as a virtual office that offers hot-desking and co-working rental spaces for just £400 per month.
On 25 April an article was published on VE3 Global’s website detailing that Chris Brocklesby and Lord Kulveer Ranger were appointed as non-executive directors to its UK board. Lord Ranger was appointed to the House of Lords in 2023, having previously been selected as then London Mayor Boris Johnson’s director for transport policy; Lord Ranger also previously helped implement the Oyster Card in London. Chris Brocklesby previously worked as chief information officer at Vodafone UK, Dunelm and Easyjet, and spent a year from 2023 to 2024 as chief transformation officer at the Post Office.
Firms not conforming to the government’s requirement to share data, and share it in a timely manner, risk being fined up to 1% of their annual global turnover, up to 5% of daily global turnover, or a combination of both. The scheme, which will be enforced by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), can also see firms face criminal sanctions, bringing unlimited fines.
The Fuel Finder scheme, originally to be called ‘Pumpwatch’, was deemed necessary by the CMA due to “weakened” national competition between retailers; margins from supermarket retailers being “roughly double” what they were in 2019; and claims consumers paid £1.6bn more in 2023 alone due to “increase in retail fuel margins”, trends said to be “hugely concerning, and which were “failing consumers” according to the CMA.
Following a consultation into these issues, DESNZ said it was “committed to implementing Fuel Finder as quickly as possible”, opening tenders to run the service at the end of 2024. The scheme is expected to go live by the end of 2025.
Gordon Balmer, executive director of the Petrol Retailers Association, commented: “I am pleased to see that the Government has appointed an aggregator to take the fuel finder scheme forward. Given the complex nature of this assignment, I expect that due diligence will have been done when appointing this aggregator to ensure a smooth transition.”
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson added: “A rigorous procurement process has taken place to appoint a supplier to become the aggregator of Fuel Finder, the statutory open data scheme for road fuel prices. This assessed criteria against Department requirements including experience, ability to deliver the service and data protection requirements.
“The Contract Award Notice will be published in due course.”
