Bosses from the UK’s big six energy companies are to be grilled by a panel of MPs about recent energy price hikes later today.

They are expected to face tough criticism from members of The Energy and Climate Change Committee following a series of inflation busting hikes.

In the past month, four of the big six energy companies – British Gas, Npower, Scottish Power and SSE – have announced gas and electricity price rises, some as high as 10%. Ovo Energy and EON are expected to follow suit.

MPs will ask bosses to explain their reasons for the hikes, and how their pricing policies differ.

They will also explore how the transparency of energy company profits can be improved.

The companies are likely to claim that the inflation busting increases are due to rises in network costs and in wholesale energy prices.