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

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that smart meters are installed in areas with poor mobile signal.

The Data and Communications Company (DCC) is putting in place a communications network across GB to send and receive information from smart meters to energy suppliers, energy network operators and energy service companies in a Wide Area Network (WAN).

The DCC is contracted to provide network coverage of at least 99.25% of GB premises by the end of 2020 and to achieving at least 80% coverage of GB premises when it begins live services later this year.

Our ambition is for all domestic and small business premises to have smart meters.