Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Graham Stuart and Anne McLaughlin

Tuesday 28th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stuart]

My hon. Friend is a stout champion not only of the pathway to net zero but of the jobs and prosperity that come with it. It is with great alacrity that I accept on behalf of my hon. Friend the Minister.

[Anne McLaughlin (Glasgow North East) (SNP)]

4. What assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of fuel poverty since 2018.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Graham Stuart and Anne McLaughlin

Tuesday 23rd May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Anne McLaughlin (Glasgow North East) (SNP)]

T9. For seven long years, my SNP colleagues and I have fought for justice for victims of green deal mis-selling. A successful recent test case is now being appealed, and the resolution to this could take many more years. In the meantime, some of my constituents have died—most recently, a lovely woman by the name of May Young. We do not have to keep putting people through this; there is a political resolution. Will the Minister meet me to discuss that?

[Graham Stuart]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question and her years of effort to support constituents in this respect. I would be delighted to meet her.

Prepayment Meters: Ofgem Decision

Debate between Graham Stuart and Anne McLaughlin

Monday 6th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

I call the SNP spokesperson.

[Anne McLaughlin (Glasgow North East) (SNP)]

It should never have got this far. We should never have ended up in a situation in which we are now talking about compensating people for something that should never have been allowed to happen to them in the first place. Nor would it have happened if the Government had listened to the many voices who have been telling them this for months. Since I first wrote to the Secretary of State in September—I am still waiting for a reply, incidentally—prepayment meters have been mentioned 450 times in this place and the other place, so the Secretary of State feigning surprise at the weekend is just not acceptable. Nor is stopping at this one aspect of forced switching, and nor is compensation alone—these meters need to be taken away.

Why are we so appalled? It is because prepayment meters are unfair, full stop. Whether they are forced on vulnerable people or whether people choose to have them, they are unfair because someone who is on one will pay more per unit of energy than those who pay in arrears, which is most of us; they will pay more in daily standing charges; and they will be automatically disconnected the second they run out of money. That is why these abhorrent practices, which have been going on for a very long time, are so unfair: prepayment meter customers are treated unfairly, full stop. Will the Minister ask the Secretary of State to look at all aspects of prepayment meters with a view to radically overhauling the entire unfair system? Does he believe that energy should be a human right?

[Graham Stuart]

The hon. Lady says that prepayment meters are unfair, full stop. That is clearly not true: they have a great use. What they should do—

Energy Bills: Self-disconnection

Debate between Graham Stuart and Anne McLaughlin

Wednesday 25th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stuart]

I am meeting suppliers this afternoon, and I will be pressuring them and continuing to talk to them about ensuring that they do everything possible to support people and provide them with emergency credit, repayment programmes and everything possible to avert their getting in a position where they have to have forcible implementation of prepayment meters, and to look after those who are on them and ensure that they are in a position where they can continue to access their heat and light.

[Anne McLaughlin (Glasgow North East) (SNP)]

Next week I am launching the all-party parliamentary group on prepayment meters, and one of the first things we were looking at is so-called self-disconnection. Given that I wrote to the Secretary of State in September expressing my concerns about this issue and have received zero response; given that the Government have twice tried to block my Pre-Payment Meters (Self-Disconnection) Bill, which seeks to outlaw self-disconnection; and given that I have had no response from BEIS to my debate in this Chamber on more general issues around prepayment meters last December, which was supported across the House, I ask the Secretary of State to commit today to meeting the APPG as a matter of urgency. We have been waiting long enough. The Minister can use terms such as physical disconnection all he likes, but the impact is the same: if people cannot access gas and electricity, they are stuck, and in 2022 somebody on a prepayment meter was disconnected from their energy supply every 10 seconds.

[Graham Stuart]

I pay tribute to the hon. Lady for her focus on and proper championing of this issue. I am not the Secretary of State but, as the Minister for Energy and Climate, I will instruct my office to reach out to hers and try to set up a meeting with the APPG sooner rather than later.