The Department said it was frustrated that the results of the evaluations would not be available to it sooner.19 Even so, it told us it was confident that it was “ready to deal with whatever happens in international energy markets”, but stressed that “there is no evidence that there will be a further price spike”. It pointed to schemes like the Winter Support Commitment, which offers some households an extra £25 to support them with their energy bills, as a way of keeping bills affordable. However, these schemes would not be sufficient to shield households from the full impact of price rises should there be another energy crisis.20 Targeting support