Oral Answers to Questions

Christine Jardine Excerpts

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Kerry McCarthy]

Perhaps if the right hon. Member had been here yesterday, she would have been able to engage with the Secretary of State on this. The science is absolutely clear: every avoided fraction of a degree of warming makes a difference to the severity of climate impacts. That is why the Prime Minister went to the global leaders summit at COP29 last year to announce a new 1.5°C-aligned nationally determined contribution, and we will continue to show international leadership.

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

15. What steps he is taking to manage the radio teleswitch service switch-off.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Miatta Fahnbulleh)]

The Government have stepped in to ensure a more controlled and carefully managed phase-out of the radio teleswitch service. I have been engaging directly on this and meeting Energy UK and Ofgem fortnightly to discuss progress and the suppliers’ phase-out plan. My focus and priority is absolutely clear: to ensure that there is no impact on consumers and that we minimise any consumer detriment.

[Christine Jardine]

I welcome the Government’s change in course, because the previous hard deadline would have left many people, including people in my constituency of Edinburgh West, vulnerable and, indeed, unaware that there was any need to change their meter, but there is still a big problem in Scotland, as 100,000 people are still waiting on meters, and may be unaware of this issue. On engaging with the community, will the Minister please tell us what she is doing in Scotland to ensure that rural communities are approached about this, and vulnerable people get protection?

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

We have been working closely with the Scottish Government and engaging with Scottish MPs. We know that about 97,000 meters needs to be replaced in Scotland. All those households have been contacted multiple times. In addition, because we know that there are particular challenges in some rural communities, we have done a sprint, in which suppliers are working in collaboration with the local authority to bring down the number of replacements needed. I can reassure the hon. Member that no area will be switched off without us contacting consumers to inform them, without us allowing them to book in emergency appointments, and, critically, without us informing MPs and local authorities, so that we do this in the best possible way.