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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to ensure that energy companies are not able to switch people who are unable to pay their energy bills due to poverty onto pre-payment meters.

The energy regulator Ofgem has rules in place that restrict the force-fitting of a prepayment meter on customers who are in debt, except as a last resort.

Ofgem’s licence conditions obligate suppliers to provide appropriate support for those struggling to pay their bills by setting up repayment plans based on a customer’s ability to pay, and by directing the customer to support services.

Ofgem's rules also require energy suppliers to assess whether installing a prepayment meter, or the remote switching of a smart meter to prepayment mode, is safe and reasonably practicable for a customer. When making this assessment, suppliers are required to consider whether a customer’s vulnerability makes a prepayment meter a poor choice, for example where medical equipment is required.