Radio Teleswitch Service Switch-off: Scotland

Miatta Fahnbulleh Excerpts

Tuesday 8th April 2025 Westminster Hall

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

I thank the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) for raising this important debate on the radio teleswitch service. I also thank him for meeting me on Thursday to discuss the concerns of his constituents, and for all the work that he and other Members are putting in to ensure that the switchover is as smooth as we can get it for constituents across the country.

We all know that the deadline for the switch-off is fast approaching. The reason for that hard deadline is that the technology behind the RTS system is at the end of its life and will soon be obsolete. When the service ends, meters still reliant on the signal will no longer be able to switch between rates. In some cases, consumers may lose control of their heating or hot water. That is incredibly concerning for constituents who might be impacted. Let me reassure the House that while the RTS switch-off has been and is industry-led and industry-run, the Government are doing everything we can to ensure the transition is delivered properly in the interests of consumers.

The progress made so far on RTS replacements has simply not been fast enough or good enough. As of 7 March there were 521,892 meters in Great Britain, with 139,000 in Scotland and 47,277 in the highlands and islands. That is not acceptable so close to the deadline. The Government are meeting regularly with Energy UK and Ofgem, as well as the suppliers, to address that, with particular focus on Scotland and remote rural areas. In those meetings, I continue to emphasise the need for urgency to ensure that RTS households across Great Britain receive a suitable replacement as soon as possible.

Turning to the focus of this debate, although there are RTS meters across Great Britain that require urgent replacement, and we are working on that, the Government are very aware of the significant number in Scotland, many of which are in remote rural and island areas. Some of those areas have had challenges with sufficient installer capacity and resource to do the job at hand. To address that, the RTS taskforce—convened by Ofgem, led by Energy UK and attended by Government—agreed that resources should be targeted towards regional hotspots with a high number of RTS meters. As part of that, a number of suppliers are planning a series of spring sprints over April and May, as part of a targeted effort to replace RTS meters in the highlands and islands.

OVO, as the key supplier, is taking a lead, but other suppliers will also be playing their part. These sprints aim to provide dedicated resources to hard-to-reach areas, ensuring that engineers are in the right areas at the right times to provide the RTS replacements to communities when they need them. To support this, Ofgem is working with suppliers to ensure that consumers are sufficiently engaged and ready to let suppliers into their properties for their meter replacements during these periods.

We will be working with Members, local government, charities and local partners to spread the word and ensure there is sufficient demand when we provide surge capacity and installers to do the job. This is part of the work that Ofgem and Smart Energy GB are doing on the RTS national consumer engagement campaign; since it began in January, it has been encouraging consumers with an RTS meter to contact their supplier to book an appointment. We are seeing an uptick in engagement—the campaign is having an impact.

On the important question of replacement meters working, technological solutions do exist and are available to replace RTS meters in every single household. The Department, alongside Ofgem, expects suppliers to replace RTS meters with smart meters where appropriate, so that consumers can access smart meter benefits in good time, including across a range of tariffs.

However, I acknowledge that some rural areas with relatively large numbers of RTS consumers, such as the highlands and islands, may have lower levels of network connectivity—we saw that in the casework that the right hon. Gentleman pointed out. In these circumstances, we believe that pre-configured smart meters can be installed in households with RTS meters. A pre-configured smart meter operates in a similar way to an analogue meter, recording energy usage accurately. These meters can provide a similar service to that provided by RTS, including electricity tariffs Economy 7 and Economy 10.

I completely agree with the right hon. Gentleman on the legitimate concerns about consumers being no worse off. We cannot have a situation in which consumers do the switch over and are worse off. That is why Ofgem has been consulting on proposals, including one that would put a condition on suppliers to take all reasonable steps to provide a tariff that leaves their customers no worse off than they were under the RTS meter. When Ofgem publishes the final proposal, which will be very soon, I hope that it will go a long way towards addressing some of the concerns that I know people have about that. I would expect all suppliers to comply with these rules, which will be baked into licensing conditions. We will be doing our part to make sure that they comply.

Let me conclude by saying that this Government understand the urgency of the situation. As the right hon. Gentleman said, we should not have been in this position. We now are, and we have to collectively work to get a grip of it and to make sure that there is no detriment to constituents across the country. I again thank him for bringing this debate to the House. I thank all Members who have been working with us, including at the roundtables, to make sure that we do this well in the final stages. I will be reconvening the roundtable after recess. I look forward to many Members attending and to collectively working to ensure that we deliver the transition in an incredibly short space of time and, critically, that no consumer is put in detriment.

Question put and agreed to.