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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government has taken to support energy suppliers in meeting smart meter installation targets during the covid-19 outbreak.

Ofgem wrote to energy suppliers on 8 April 2020 to provide them with flexibility to temporarily deprioritise non-essential meter installations. This enabled energy suppliers to focus on: ensuring that customer needs were met, particularly the most vulnerable; maintaining secure, reliable and safe supplies of energy to consumers in the short to medium term; and ensuring the safety and protection of consumers and their workforces.

The Government is working with energy suppliers to re-mobilise the roll-out of smart meters, further to guidance published on 11 May 2020 on working safely in people’s homes during COVID-19.