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 make an assessment of the potential impact on consumer energy bills of (a) faults and (b) loss of smart function in smart meters.

Over half of energy meters in Great Britain are now smart meters. The vast majority are operating as intended, providing consumers with automatic meter readings and near-real time usage information via the In-Home Display. Estimates, based on the current typical household bill, indicate the rollout is delivering over £0.5 billion in annual bill savings.

Allowances for operational factors such as maintenance or faults are already factored into industry’s cost bases. Energy suppliers have commercial incentives to ensure these costs are minimised, including having active programmes to address faults where they do exist.