Hundreds of UK petrol stations fail to report live prices

Hundreds of petrol stations across the UK are failing to comply with a mandatory government scheme designed to provide drivers with live fuel price data, according to an analysis of official figures. The Fuel Finder service, which launched in February, requires all forecourts to report pump price changes within 30 minutes, but many have not submitted data for over a week or have never reported at all.

The analysis, based on data from the government's Fuel Finder platform, found that 1,751 stations had not submitted a petrol price change for more than a week as of Monday, July 6. Within that group, 96 had not provided an update for at least a month. A further 226 sites registered on the platform have either never supplied data or are listed as temporarily closed. Separate industry figures indicate there are approximately 8,338 operational petrol stations in the UK, suggesting a significant gap in compliance.

Simon Williams, head of policy at the RAC, said it was not plausible that so many stations had not changed their prices for such extended periods, noting that most retailers receive new fuel deliveries at least once a week. He called for immediate steps to ensure all...