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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to prevent energy companies from breaching licence agreements by forcing customers in vulnerable customers in Newcastle Central constituency onto prepayment meters.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State has written to Ofgem to ask that they do more to make sure suppliers protect vulnerable consumers. This includes revisiting their approach to enforcing supplier compliance, as well as the urgent publication of recent investigations outcomes into vulnerable customers. I also spoke to Ofgem this morning.

Ofgem is conducting a review that will focus specifically on self-disconnections, remote switching and forced installations and, the checks and balances companies have around any decision to put a customer on a pre-payment meter. If Ofgem find that suppliers have not taken due care in this process, they will take further legal action against the suppliers.