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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to inform consumers of (a) the limitations on the interoperability of first generation meters when changing energy supplier and (b) how those limitations will be tackled through the roll-out of second generation meters.

Under licence conditions, energy suppliers must inform their customers prior to the installation of a smart meter that they may lose meter functionality when switching. In addition, before any switch is concluded, the new supplier must tell the consumer about any change in how their meter will operate and the service they will receive.

These requirements aim to help consumers make informed decisions about switching, in the period before first generation smart meters are enrolled into the national data and communications platform and thus can be operated by any energy supplier. This upgrade will be done remotely.

Second generation meters use the smart metering infrastructure run by the Data and Communications Company and will enable all consumers to retain their smart functionality when they switch supplier.