Britain’s biggest energy companies, which are facing scrutiny over recent price rises, have agreed to make the minutes of their lobby group meetings available to their regulator.

The move comes after an examination of price rises this month being conducted by Ofgem, the sector’s regulator.

The Energy Retail Association (ERA) — which consists of British Gas, Scottish & Southern Energy, EDF, E.ON, ScottishPower and nPower — said that it would not disclose publicly the minutes of its board meetings, which are held every two months, “because they include discussion of public policy matters”.

However, the ERA said that it would be “happy to provide copies of our minutes to Ofgem, at any time”.

The ERA fiercely rejected allegations that its members had ever used the forum to discuss prices, or acted in a cartel-like manner.

It said: “The ERA board never discusses the pricing or product strategies of individual companies and the ERA has no knowledge of any price changes introduced by any of its members before they are announced to the public.”

The ERA said that it “operates within strict guidelines as to the conduct of meetings and all of its other activities”.

In a statement to The Times, the ERA said that it had been contacted by Ofgem on January 14 and had discussed the claims with Alistair Buchanan, Ofgem chief executive, that day.

The allegations emerged as three of the UK’s top suppliers — nPower, EDF and British Gas — raised prices within two weeks of each other.

All blamed steep rises in wholesale gas and power prices as well as rising transmission and distribution costs and the growing cost of investing in renewable power.

The spate of rises prompted Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, to call Mr Buchanan and Sir John Mogg, Ofgem chairman, to a meeting to discuss energy prices. Scottish & Southern has said subsequently that it intends to freeze prices until at least March.

Ofgem said that it had no evidence of anticompetitive behaviour in the UK energy market, but that it was its responsibility as industry regulator to examine any claims carefully.

Last week the watchdog published a statement insisting that the UK market was competitive and was functioning properly.

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