A new petrol and diesel price checker that could help cut fuel prices could launch in the UK under government plans.

An open data scheme would increase transparency on where prices are cheaper and enabling drivers to shop around

The open data scheme would collect individual forecourt prices and make them freely available. This would enable drivers to compare pump prices, increasing transparency on where prices are cheaper and enabling them to shop around.

A similar scheme already operates in Northern Ireland and is credited with helping keep fuel prices cheaper than the rest of the UK. Other markets such as Germany have schemes that operate in real time.

In its initial review of fuel prices last year, the Competition and Markets Authority recommended the Government explore such a scheme after it warned of variations in the price of road fuel, including pricing disparities between urban and rural areas.

Since then, the UK’s competition watchdog has started a Road Fuel Market Study that’s already found evidence of ‘rocket and feather’ pricing and rising retailer fuel margins.

The AA welcomed the move on fuel pricing transparency which it said could “stimulate the level of competition lost since the pandemic”.

Edmund King, the AA’s president, commented: “Since 2012, when the AA sent a fact-finding mission to view fuel price transparency in Austria, the UK’s biggest motoring organisation has said that this is the best way to stimulate competition at the pump.

“The Austrian system has evolved in other European countries and, since July 2020, a version has been available in Northern Ireland.

“The Government is now considering real-time monitoring of pump prices that would make the Northern Ireland model even more sophisticated and comprehensive, particularly with coverage of prices along routes connecting towns and cities. This is extremely good news and mirrors the ‘crème de la crème’ fuel price transparency in France.

“However, the AA would be happy with a two-stage approach where the current Northern Ireland model is extended across the UK to stimulate pump-price competition as soon as possible. The more sophisticated real-time platform would follow later, as we suspect it will meet resistance from the fuel trade.”

The RAC also commented on the plans. Fuel spokesperson Simon Williams said: “An online fuel price checker that resembles those available to drivers in Germany where prices are displayed for individual forecourts in real-time could be helpful, but may not, on its own, lead to fairer prices. Certainly, we don’t think any UK-wide system should mimic what already exists in Northern Ireland where fuel prices are only updated once a week and there’s no indication of which forecourts are cheapest.

“One issue that often leads to widely varying prices locally, which badly needs addressing, is the fact major retailers operate regional pricing which can mean much higher prices where there is little or no competition.

“But perhaps the biggest issue of all is that pump prices don’t always mirror movements on the wholesale market, particularly when the latter is coming down, so arguably that’s where the Government’s focus should be. Only when this happens will drivers stop losing out, as there have been far too many occasions when wholesale prices have plummeted and pump prices have taken forever to drop.”