In the middle of a cold winter and significant growth in poverty, with inflation rampant and wages lagging behind, we're allowing energy companies to forcibly switch people to the most expensive and precarious way of paying for energy—hundreds of thousands of people. And of the 500,000 applications for court orders to forcibly switch residents, just 72 were refused, and that's despite the so-called requirement for energy companies to ensure that prepayment meters are suitable for customers regarded as vulnerable—those who are disabled, those with long-term health conditions.

Presiding Officer, there is meant to be a ban on switching to a prepayment meter if the consumer does not want one, yet we have reports of batches of court orders being taken at once, sometimes hundreds issued at a time. Does this suggest to anyone that the appropriate checks are happening? Vulnerable people are being switched in the middle of winter with either little or, in fact, no work to see who they are or what their conditions and circumstances are. This leaves many constantly living with the fear of being cut off. Citizens Advice have reported that somebody is cut off every 10 seconds because they cannot afford their top-up to their prepayment meter. Quite frankly, this is a matter of life and death.

It is abundantly clear that neither the regulator, Ofgem, nor the UK Government have grasped the extent of this problem. I have been highlighting this for some months now. When I wrote to Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State, at the end of December, he gave a standardised reply demonstrating no concern at all. But finally, this weekend just gone, after hundreds of thousands have already been switched, he's finally recognised the need for serious concern. But he has allowed the situation to continue, and instead written and asked for co-operation from suppliers. Well, I am clear that in the middle of this winter, in the middle of this cost-of-living crisis, we cannot leave this to the courts, we cannot leave this to the suppliers, and that's why, once again, I am calling on the Secretary of State and Ofgem to ban the forced installation of prepayment meters, or at least at a very minimum, Presiding Officer, they should order a halt to enforce prepayment meter switches until companies can show beyond doubt that they do perform the process safely.

Fortunately, Presiding Officer, unlike the UK Tory Government, I'm not burdened with an ideological belief that despite all evidence, things must be left to the goodwill of these companies. It is time for these UK Tories to show leadership. Let's be clear: prepayment meters are installed because it suits the energy suppliers. I hope we all can agree that preserving lives is much more important than that. And as I said at the start, poverty isn't just about the immediate prepay scandal that will impact people's lives forever; the cold that results from people not using energy or being cut off will have so many more impacts. It will inhibit children's ability to learn. It will cause people to fall ill and develop chronic conditions. It will cause trauma and mental health problems, and create so many more issues that it is impossible to speak to them all now. 

But access to heat and energy should be something that we all can take for granted, no matter what our background is. It should be a principle on which our system of energy supply is designed around, but instead it's abundantly clear that what takes precedence over this is the interests of energy suppliers. And this Tory crisis will grind on, and Government must become agile to spot the risks and support people. And I'll end, Presiding Officer, with this: if the Tory Government in Westminster cannot simply do that, then they should now call a general election and let the people decide what the Government's priority should be. Diolch yn fawr.