Fuel Finder alpha assessment report
Service Standard report for DESNZ's Fuel Finder alpha assessment
Service Standard reassessment report
Fuel Finder
| Assessment date | 26/08/2025 |
| Assessment stage | Alpha |
| Assessment type | Assessment |
| Service provider | Department for Energy Security and Net Zero |
| Result | Green |
Service description:
Fuel Finder is a statutory Open Data scheme requiring Petrol Filling Stations (PFS’s) to share fuel prices in near real time, to increase price transparency and help consumers make more informed decisions on where to buy road fuels. An appointed aggregator will collect and aggregate this data and make the aggregated data set available to interested parties through an API and a twice-daily flat file.
Service users
This service is for:
- Motor Fuel Traders (MFTs) – These are the individuals or enterprises who operate forecourts or PFSs and are obliged to report Business Data specified in the Motor Fuel Price (Open Data) Regulations.
- Delegated Reporters (‘Pre-Aggregators’) – Fuel industry service providers and technology suppliers intending to submit fuel price changes on behalf of MFTs as a service.
- Information Recipients – Trade bodies, academics, interested members of the public, and technology innovators providing public-facing fuel price related systems and analytics.
- Motorists – The ultimate consumers of fuel price data published by Information Recipients.
- Regulators – The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). CMA will enforce compliance of the legislation.
- Service Provider (‘Aggregator’) – The aggregator is responsible for designing and operating the system, including providing support services, compliance monitoring, and system health oversight.
Things the service team has done well:
- Tech: The service team has produced a clear design which removes unnecessary complexity.
- UR: The service team has worked closely together to understand the complexity of user groups, and align user needs with policy requirements.
- Lead: The team has demonstrated sound agile principles and cohesion under tight time constraints.
- Design: The team has progressed a lot of work through alpha and demonstrated a structured approach to testing assumptions and ensuring the needs of a broad set of users.
1. Understand users and their needs
Decision
The service was rated green for point 1 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- approaching private beta phase, the service will be benefited to further understand the needs of the actual users who will be interacting with the service, and to further explore varying digital literacy and potential accessibility needs.
- to continue designing as a service, validating and testing the end-to-end journey of the service, which includes both online and offline touch points.
- the team is recommended to document how research findings are being considered in design iterations.
2. Solve a whole problem for users
Decision
The service was rated green for point 2 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- the team should include the verb-based name as part of the user research in beta. This would mean that they are not only scoping the service for the problem and how users think but also naming it in the same convention as other verb-based services they interact with across government.
3. Provide a joined-up experience across all channels
Decision
The service was rated green for point 3 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- the service currently has assisted digital components by its nature, but the team should document and test this journey, and see where it might be improved, as they continue developing the service.
- the team is recommended to continue validating and improving the online-offline journey.
4. Make the service simple to use
Decision
The service was rated green for point 4 of the Standard.
5. Make sure everyone can use the service
Decision
The service was rated green for point 5 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- the team have plans in beta for testing with language-based industry groups and also plans to look at Welsh translation. The team may want to consider at least one dedicated sprint for speakers of other languages.
- the team is advised to continue monitoring and testing for accessibility and digital literacy needs. Ensure usability of ‘actual’ users in large organisations are also covered in user research.
6. Have a multidisciplinary team
Decision
The service was rated green for point 6 of the Standard.
7. Use agile ways of working
Decision
The service was rated green for point 7 of the Standard.
8. Iterate and improve frequently
Decision
The service was rated green for point 8 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- the team is planning to have the beta assessment in [mid/late] October. This is a challenging timescale for a complex service where not all the user journeys have been prototyped. The panel recommends the service team looks again at timings to ensure they have a successful private beta phase and don’t come in for assessment before they’re ready.
- the API and bulk upload user journeys should be prototyped early in the private beta phase.
9. Create a secure service which protects users’ privacy
Decision
The service was rated green or point 9 of the Standard.
10. Define what success looks like and publish performance data
Decision
The service was rated green for point 10 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- the team should consider expanding upon the mandated KPI’s to demonstrate benefit realisation.
- the team should consider measuring potential consumer savings as this was given as a key policy objective.
11. Choose the right tools and technology
Decision
The service was rated green for point 11 of the Standard.
12. Make new source code open
Decision
The service was rated green for point 12 of the Standard.
Optional advice to help the service team continually improve the service:
- the team will publish their source code on the Integrated Corporate Services (ICS) GitHub repository.
13. Use and contribute to open standards, common components and patterns
Decision
The service was rated green for point 13 of the Standard.
14. Operate a reliable service
Decision
The service was rated green for point 14 of the Standard.
Next Steps
This service can now move into a public beta phase with consideration given to the optional advice provided in this report.