If you look at enough fuel prices, you notice something odd: some stations report a new price every couple of days, while others appear to have not moved in two months. That is not a fault in the data.
Stations report changes, not clock-ins
Under the Fuel Finder scheme, a station must report within 30 minutes of changing a price. If the price does not change, there is nothing to report, and the timestamp stays where it was. A 60-day-old timestamp usually means exactly that: the price has not moved in 60 days.
The pattern is real
Across the UK the pattern is predictable. Supermarkets reprice most weeks; small independent stations can sit on the same price for a month or more. In our own data the median age of the last price change ranged from about 1 day at Tesco to 17 days at some small brands.
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An old price is probably still correct — but "probably" is not good enough when we are telling you where to drive. So our averages, "lowest reported" figures and spreads are calculated only from reports updated within 14 days, and we say how many stations that covers.
What to do with an old price
Treat it as a guide, not a promise. If a station has held the same price for two months it is very likely still selling at that price — but check the board when you arrive. And if you spot a genuine error, report it to GOV.UK and it gets fixed at source.
Written by UKFuelPrices.uk, using open data from the UK Government Fuel Finder scheme. Last reviewed March 2026 · see our methodology.