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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of whether the target of installing 53 million energy smart meters by 2020 will be met.

The Government is committed to ensuring that all homes and small businesses are offered smart meters by the end of 2020. The Programme is well underway, there are now over 8.6 million smart and advanced meters operating across homes and businesses across Great Britain with around 400,000 being installed every month. The rollout of smart meters is on track to deliver significant benefits, including putting an end to estimated bills, and is set to save consumers £300m in 2020 alone.

Energy suppliers are responsible for planning and delivering the roll-out of smart meters, working within the legal framework established by the Government. Energy suppliers’ licence conditions require them to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to roll-out smart meters to all their domestic and small business customers by 31 December 2020. Ofgem is responsible for regulating energy suppliers against this obligation.