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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households have prepayment meters or (a) electricity and (b) gas; and what proportion of each category has smart meters.

Official statistics show that, at the end of 2021, 14% of households had a prepayment service; the proportion is the same for both gas and electricity. The latest statistics on Quarterly Energy Prices are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-energy-prices-march-2022.

The Government’s official statistics on the rollout of smart meters show that, at the end of 2021, 13% of all smart meters were in prepayment mode, broadly in line with levels of prepayment meters in the market. These statistics are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/smart-meters-in-great-britain-quarterly-update-december-2021.