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

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what her Department's governance arrangements are for the smart meter rollout.

The Department is accountable for the Smart Metering Programme business case, and for ensuring that consumers realise the benefits of smart metering. Energy suppliers in turn are responsible for planning and delivering the roll-out, working within the regulatory framework established by the Government.

Following the award of the Smart Meters Communications Licence to the Data and Communications Company (DCC) in September 2013, the Department developed with industry and consumer organisations a Transition Governance Model to support its decision making and to drive and coordinate progress across energy suppliers, network operators, the DCC and Smart Energy GB. This model includes a regular Ministerial governance meeting with board-level energy industry and consumer group counterparts:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/363674/transition_governance_overview.pdf.

This is reviewed regularly and is currently moving its focus to oversight of the main installation phase of the programme.

Once energy suppliers are rolling out smart meters at scale through the Data and Communications Company, the Department intends to step back leaving industry to manage the overall system through enduring governance arrangements set out in the Smart Energy Code and subject to regulatory oversight from Ofgem.