Just to correct the record, Ofgem is in charge. The measures it put out today, with industry agreement, will help to protect people. When a person’s payments are in deficit, they have to find a way out. The hon. Lady appears to favour a system in which, rather than installing a prepayment meter, people are immediately taken to court, which I do not think is a good solution. We will carry on working with Ofgem to make sure we put the best solutions in place.

Smart meters are modernising the energy system and benefit households and small business across Great Britain. Energy suppliers are responsible for the provision of metering and are required to take all reasonable steps to install a smart meter where a meter is fitted for the first time or when an existing meter needs to be replaced. Energy suppliers are best placed to make decisions on individual circumstances in accordance with customer needs and availability of existing traditional meters.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State has written to Ofgem to ask that they do more to make sure suppliers protect vulnerable consumers. This includes revisiting their approach to enforcing supplier compliance, as well as the urgent publication of recent investigations outcomes into vulnerable customers. I also spoke to Ofgem this morning.

Ofgem is conducting a review that will focus specifically on self-disconnections, remote switching and forced installations and, the checks and balances companies have around any decision to put a customer on a pre-payment meter. If Ofgem find that suppliers have not taken due care in this process, they will take further legal action against the suppliers.

I met with Ofgem and energy suppliers on 25th January to discuss matters related to energy customers on prepayment meters.

As the independent regulator, Ofgem is responsible for ensuring licensed energy suppliers are complying with their licence conditions. Ofgem publishes details of its compliance and enforcement action on its website at: www.ofgem.gov.uk/energy-policy-and-regulation/compliance-and-enforcement.

The smart metering Data Access and Privacy Framework (DAPF) ensures that households have control over who can access their energy consumption data and for what purposes, except where this is required for regulated purposes. It establishes specific provisions relating to the processing of energy consumption data, which are designed to complement, but not replace, wider data protection legislation.

Electricity and Gas meter personal data collected through the Energy Price Guarantee scheme will be processed in the public interest under Article 6(1)(e) of UK GDPR.

Smart meters only record energy consumption data. Personal information such as names, addresses and bank details are not stored on a smart meter.

The smart metering Data Access and Privacy Framework (DAPF) ensures that households have control over who can access their energy consumption data and for what purposes, except where this is required for regulated purposes. It establishes specific provisions relating to the processing of energy consumption data, which are designed to complement, but not replace, wider data protection legislation.

Electricity and Gas meter personal data collected through the Energy Price Guarantee scheme will be processed in the public interest under Article 6(1)(e) of UK GDPR and processing will be compliant with the provisions set out in the DAPF.

Smart meters only record energy consumption data. Personal information such as names, addresses and bank details are not stored on a smart meter.

The Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) scheme complements the Data Access and Privacy Framework (DAPF) for smart metering.

The Government will continue to work with energy suppliers and Ofgem to ensure compliance with the DAPF.

The Government works closely with Ofgem to ensure a high standard of consumer protection is maintained across the retail energy sector, including for smart metering and the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG).

The scope of data required to support the EPG is still being determined. The Government will continue to work with energy suppliers to ensure that consumers’ privacy is safeguarded, while enabling proportionate access to data to enable evaluation and fraud prevention, as is in the public interest. No personal data has yet been collected in relation to the scheme.

The Department works closely with Ofgem to monitor consumer experience of smart meters and to ensure compliance with the Data Access and Privacy Framework.

The Government worked with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to establish a strict Data Access and Privacy Framework for smart metering that protects consumers’ privacy.

The Government continues to work with the ICO to ensure that it is complying with statutory duties in relation to smart and traditional meter data.

The Government has announced unprecedented support within its Growth Plan to protect households and businesses from high energy prices. The Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme are supporting millions of households and businesses with rising energy costs, and they will continue to do so from now until April next year. This is on top of the £800 of one-off support to eight million of the most vulnerable households to help with the cost of living

The smart metering Data Access and Privacy Framework protects consumers’ privacy and set outs the levels of access to energy consumption data from smart meters permitted for different parties. The Framework ensures that households have control over who can access their energy consumption data and for what purposes, except where this is required for regulated purposes.

Energy suppliers and networks are permitted under their Licence Conditions to access energy consumption data for narrowly defined regulatory purposes.

Energy suppliers can access data for purposes including billing, meeting a customer request for access to their data, responding to an enquiry or complaint by a customer, and where they have reasonable grounds to suspect and investigate theft.

Energy networks can access granular consumption data to support the safe and efficient management and reinforcement of energy networks, provided they have a consumer’s consent or implement strict data protection procedures approved by Ofgem.

Information must be made available to consumers on which energy consumption data will be accessed and for what purpose.

Smart meters are replacing traditional gas and electricity meters in Great Britain as part of an essential infrastructure upgrade to make the energy system more efficient and flexible, enabling the cost-effective delivery of net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

The Government has put in place a strict Data Access and Privacy Framework that protects consumers’ privacy and set outs the levels of access to energy consumption data from smart meters permitted for different parties. The Framework ensures that households have control over who can access their energy consumption data and for what purposes, except where this is required for regulated purposes (such as accurate billing).

Consumers can also choose to share their data with third parties for example to obtain tailored energy efficiency advice. Where third parties are accessing consumption data via the smart metering network they must have the consumer’s consent which consumers can withdraw at any time. In addition to the specific protections of the Framework, all parties are required to comply with relevant data protection laws when processing personal data.

In May 2019 we launched a public consultation on our regulatory proposals which concluded on the 5th June 2019.

We consulted on our core proposal to create a minimum cyber security baseline for consumer IoT products, and how best to implement this, mindful of the risk of dampening innovation and avoiding placing a sizeable burden on UK manufacturers and retailers.

Following the conclusion of the consultation, we are now working through the feedback to refine our policy proposals and we will publish a formal public response in due course which will outline the Government’s proposed next steps.

The Online Harms White Paper introduces a new statutory duty of care which will apply to companies that provide services or tools that allow, enable or facilitate users to share or discover user-generated content, or interact with each other online. The Government is consulting on whether this proposed scope is a suitable basis for an effective approach. All harms suffered by individuals that result directly from a breach of the data protection legislation are not in scope of the Online Harms White Paper, to avoid duplication with existing regulatory regimes.

The Online Harms White Paper consultation proposes that the duty of care applies to companies that provide services or tools that allow, enable or facilitate users to share or discover user-generated content, or interact with each other online. It, therefore, would not typically apply to consumer smart devices. Harms suffered by individuals that result directly from a breach of data protection, breach of cyber-security or hacking are also excluded from scope.

However, the Government has taken a number of actions to increase the security of consumer smart devices. In October 2018, DCMS published the Code of Practice for Consumer Internet of Things (IoT) Security to support manufacturers in building strong security into smart products by design. We recognise that further action is needed, and we will soon be publishing a consultation on our regulatory proposals regarding consumer IoT security.

The Government’s aim is that smart meters installed by one supplier can be operated by another so that consumers can switch energy supplier readily and retain the benefits of their smart metering service. That is why we have established the Data and Communications Company (DCC), and the latest version of the smart metering technical specifications (known as SMETS2), has been established.

Smart meters complying with the first version of the technical specifications (SMETS1) are delivering real benefits to consumers and have helped the industry prepare for the main installation stage of the roll-out. Consumers with these meters are still able to switch supplier. If the new supplier is not able to operate the meter in smart mode, the meter will continue to accurately record energy consumption accurately and can be used in traditional mode, with meter readings taken manually. The meter will not normally need to be replaced. Work is underway to make SMETS1 smart meters interoperable between energy suppliers, through enrolment in to the DCC’s system.

The Government’s aim is that smart meters installed by one supplier can be operated by another so that consumers can switch energy supplier readily and retain the benefits of their smart metering service. That is why we have established the Data and Communications Company (DCC), and the latest version of the smart metering technical specifications (known as SMETS2), has been established.

Smart meters complying with the first version of the technical specifications (SMETS1) are delivering real benefits to consumers and have helped the industry prepare for the main installation stage of the roll-out. Consumers with these meters are still able to switch supplier. If the new supplier is not able to operate the meter in smart mode, the meter will continue to accurately record energy consumption accurately and can be used in traditional mode, with meter readings taken manually. The meter will not normally need to be replaced. Work is underway to make SMETS1 smart meters interoperable between energy suppliers, through enrolment in to the DCC’s system.

The hon. Lady should know that privacy is absolutely protected and at the heart of the smart meter programme. She should be careful not to put fear into the hearts of people where none should exist. The data are protected, and they belong not to the Government—which some people might, not unreasonably, fear—but to the energy companies. We will always reassure consumers that privacy is at the core of delivering safe meters.

I welcome the hon. Member’s support for smart meters, and I am sure she will agree that their roll-out is a vital step towards putting consumers firmly in control of their energy use. Consumers will need to have ready access to the data from their smart meters if we are to achieve that goal. That is why all households will be offered an in-home display that will allow them to see the energy they are using in near real time, as well as its cost. We are also allowing suppliers to trial innovative technologies alongside that.

The Smart Metering technical and security architecture is based on a suite of agreed, open standards, reflecting the Government’s strategy to facilitate the development of third party innovative solutions for consumer devices. Consumer consumption data is stored securely on the meter, rather than in any central database. Consumers can give consent to authorised third parties to access this data via the Data and Communications Company, or they can securely connect devices through their Home Area Network to access the data locally.