Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps he has taken to help businesses and individuals to switch their gas and electricity suppliers more quickly.

We have worked with Energy UK, Ofgem, suppliers and other key industry partners to develop and implement proposals which will enable domestic customers to switch supplier 17 days, half the time it currently takes. The industry code changes to enable to this will come in to force on 6 November and Energy UK members have all committed to offering it by the end of the year. These code changes will also enable more streamlined switching of non-domestic customers.

The Department is also working with Ofgem to support their proposals for a longer term move to next day switching. A key element of this is the roll out of smart meters.