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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what guidelines the Government has issued to energy companies on the forcible installation of prepayment energy meters; and what assessment has he made of the compatibility of forcible installations with the Human Rights Act 1998.

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. Forcible installations of prepayment meters for vulnerable customers have been banned by Ofgem since 2017.

Licensees in the gas and electricity markets are obliged to comply with the relevant Ofgem licence conditions, which are created and revised with regard to the relevant acts of parliament.