Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent steps he has taken to make switching energy supplier quicker.

Since our challenge to industry in the Annual Energy Statement to cut switching times, the Department has worked with Ofgem and the industry to bring forward changes to industry rules to enable and secured industry commitment to a halving switching time from 5 weeks to 2 weeks and 3 days by the end of this year.

My ambition is to see switching times reduced to 24 hours and Ofgem has now brought forward a consultation on how this can be achieved. The Department will continue to work with Ofgem and industry to deliver this in a reliable and cost effective way as quickly as possible.