Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make it his policy to prevent energy companies from requiring customers to move onto energy pre-payment meters if those customers (a) do not have children, (b) are disabled or medically unwell and (c) are in a state of economic deprivation and have not provided consent.

Ofgem has rules in place that restrict the force-fitting of prepayment meters on consumers in vulnerable situations. Energy suppliers are required to follow specific processes before switching a customer to a prepayment meter. This includes considerations of whether a consumer’s vulnerability makes a prepayment meter a poor choice, for example where a consumer is ill or disabled. Ofgem requires all suppliers to provide a Priority Services Register for vulnerable consumers with additional, non-financial needs.