Prepayment meters - Committees join to probe forced installation
Joint evidence session of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy & Justice Committees
The forced installation of expensive pre-payment meters in the homes of energy customers – and how this was allowed to happen - is being investigated by cross-party MPs from two parliamentary Committees.
Meeting details
The Justice Committee and the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee are joining forces to look into the legal and commercial aspects of the forced installations. They will question British Gas owner Centrica, energy company Utilita, debt enforcement agencies and a former magistrate about a situation first exposed by the I Newspaper.
These reports – and later investigations by an undercover journalist at The Times - raised concerns that people with vulnerabilities might have had the meters forcibly installed. This could mean the de-facto cutting-off of some customers if they could not afford to make the pre-payments.
In July 2022, the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee raised concerns about the installation of prepayment meters in the homes of vulnerable people in a report on the future of energy pricing. The Report called for Ofgem to make full use of enforcement powers to clamp down on suppliers breaking the rules and to identify and support those at risk of self-disconnection.
The former magistrate will be asked about the role of the courts in granting warrants that enable forced installation, while the energy industry watchdog Ofgem will be probed on what it knew about the practice - and how it dealt with the aftermath.
The Chair of the Justice Committee, Sir Bob Neill MP, wrote to the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Justice, Mike Freer MP, on 20 December 2022 saying the process at magistrates courts would appear to allow energy companies, working with debt enforcement agencies, to be granted the warrants without sufficient opportunity for the individuals concerned to contest the application, or for the magistrate to scrutinise whether a warrant was merited.