Prepayment Meters

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:07 pm on 8 February 2023.

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Photo of Jack Sargeant Jack Sargeant Labour 3:07, 8 February 2023

Can I thank the Minister for that answer, and again thank her for her leadership on behalf of the Welsh Government in bringing these issues to the attention of the UK Government?

The UK Government, Ofgem and the courts have watched this national scandal develop for over a year, seemingly simply trusting energy suppliers and debt collection agents to do the right thing. Thousands of warrants for the forced installation of prepay meters have been passed without scrutiny; the only check being that the debt collection agents simply state that nobody impacted is vulnerable. We know that that is not true. Just last week, we all would have seen the footage of the results: vulnerable people's houses entered, often broken into, and prepay meters forcibly installed. The courts have now finally ordered a halt to this, but for me, it's far too late for the thousands that have already been switched.

Minister, we need meaningful compensation, we need a ban on the remote switching, and to allow those already switched—forcibly switched—to switch back free of charge. In your meetings with the UK Government, if they accept your invitation and your calls, will you express the importance and urgency of the calls I've said today? And will you also investigate whether the Welsh Government and this Senedd could support the development of rules similar to those put in place for water back in the 1990s—those rules that don't allow people, people right across our society in Wales and the United Kingdom, to be simply cut off and disconnected?