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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to prevent energy suppliers from requiring customers to switch to energy prepayment meters.

Prepayment meters (PPMs) allow customers to pay for energy on a pay-as-you-go basis and serve an important function by helping avoid debt and court action. A ban on PPM switching as a last resort could lead to an increase in bailiff action. There are no plans to remove this option.

Ofgem has stringent rules on the force-fitting of PPMs. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State has written to Ofgem asking it to conduct a review to make sure suppliers are complying with those rules. The Business Secretary has also asked energy suppliers to commit voluntarily to stopping this practice.