Energy: Disconnections
House of Lords
Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour)
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many households have been disconnected from their energy supply in each month of the past five years; and for what reasons and by which energy supplier.
Baroness Stowell of Beeston (Conservative)
Ofgem monitors and publishes information about the disconnection of domestic gas and electricity supplies (in its social obligations annual reports). Although the disconnection data are not published for each month, the Domestic Suppliers' Social Obligations: 2010 Annual Report (www.ofgem.gov.uk/sustainability) provides annual data for the number of disconnections relating to debt undertaken by each supplier for 2006-10. The tables below show the number of disconnections due to debt for electricity and gas supplies by each of the big six suppliers.
| Disconnection of electricity supplies | |||||
| Supplier | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
| British Gas | 1 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 2 |
| E.ON | 233 | 476 | 337 | 1 | 1 |
| Edf Energy | 313 | 494 | 1,138 | 1,588 | 1,341 |
| Npower | 380 | 861 | 295 | 163 | 253 |
| SSE | 97 | 178 | 175 | 156 | 82 |
| Scottish Power | 234 | 648 | 885 | 418 | 230 |
| Total | 1,258 | 2,657 | 2,833 | 2,343 | 1,909 |
| Disconnection of gas supplies | |||||
| Supplier | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
| British Gas | 2 | 0 | 8 | 37 | 0 |
| E.ON | 644 | 928 | 445 | 0 | 0 |
| Edf Energy | 526 | 878 | 975 | 474 | 234 |
| Npower | 1,637 | 1,343 | 360 | 61 | 81 |
| SSE | 593 | 728 | 335 | 98 | 66 |
| Scottish Power | 454 | 848 | 799 | 1,013 | 407 |
| Total | 3,856 | 4,725 | 2,922 | 1,683 | 788 |
Existing supply licence obligations and an industry code of practice provide protection for consumers in debt; for example, suppliers must not disconnect a domestic premises during October to March if they know or have reason to believe that the customer is of pensionable age and lives alone, or only lives with other pensioners or children under the age of 18.