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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment has he made of the practicability for consumers of switching pre-pay suppliers.

Pre-payment meter customers who are not repaying a debt can transfer onto a new supplier’s pre-payment tariff with ease.

The Debt Assignment Protocol (DAP) is an industry agreement monitored by Ofgem that enables prepayment meter customers with a debt of up to £500 for gas and electricity to switch to pre-payment tariff offered by another supplier. In addition, Ofgem published an open letter on 21 February 2017 setting out their actions to further help indebted pre-payment customers to use DAP to switch supplier.