MOSL has published its 2023-26 Business Plan for member voting - the plan sets out MOSL’s expenditure for 2023-24 and the delivery of its core services and key programmes of work.

The publication of the final plan follows extensive engagement with trading party members and key stakeholders including through the dedicated consultation which ran from 11 - 25 January.

MOSL consulted specifically on the level of Market Operator (MO) charges (£12,150k) and the scope and phasing of two critical programmes of work – the Bilateral Transactions Programme and the Data Cleanse Service.

Consultation responses showed strong support for the overall level of core MO charges, with 95 per cent of respondents supportive. There was also clear support for the next phase of the Bilateral Transactions Programme (95 per cent of respondents supportive).

There was greater challenge on the scope and funding of the Data Cleanse Service. Whilst most respondents were supportive of the programme itself (65 per cent), 10 out of 20 trading parties raised concerns including how the work will complement existing data cleansing initiatives by wholesalers, and how improvements will be incentivised. On funding, the concern turned to the mechanism and apprehension that this could set a precedent.

Following a review of the responses, MOSL said it has undertaken further extensive engagement with those members expressing concerns, including their CEOs, commenting:

“This has enabled us to provide clarity on how their concerns are addressed within the proposals, why we believe that the service is critical for the market and to provide further assurance that the funding mechanism will not set a precedent for future work.

“In particular, we have emphasised the critical nature of the central Data Cleanse Service in unlocking the potential for this market to flourish and deliver for customers and in getting good quality data into the central system.”

According to MOSL, the service will form the basis of the data assessment for the new Market Performance Framework (MPF) and act as a key tool to allow the assessment and incentivisation of data accuracy as part of the development of the framework.

The market operator added:

“Following this engagement, we believe that we have secured broad recognition that this is a critical programme of work, support for the proposed scope for 2023/24 and for the associated funding mechanism.”

For clarity, we have highlighted the one-off nature of the funding mechanism, noting that the associated code change (CPM050) makes it clear that the scope of any wholesaler charges is limited to data cleanse.

Members will now have the opportunity to vote on the two special resolutions:

The first resolution is to approve the 2023-24 annual budget of expenditure required for the running of the company, of £12,150,000, as contained within the Company’s 2023-26 Business Plan, available here

The second resolution is to approve Market Operator Charges of £550,000, levied on Wholesaler Members, required to deliver the 2023-24 phase of the Company’s proposed Central Data Cleanse Service, with the scope as specified within Change Proposal CPM050, available here

In terms of the voting mechanism, each is a special resolution and so requires two-thirds of each category of members to vote, and 75 per cent of those voting to be in favour. There are currently 25 wholesalers (including NAVs), seven Associated Retailers, and 28 unassociated retailers (including self-supply).