§ Mr. Parryasked the Secretary of State for Energy if there are any plans to review the procedures of disconnection of gas and electricity supplies due to customers' arrears.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithDisconnection procedures are governed by the industries' voluntary code of practice which safeguards genuine cases of hardship from disconnection. The operation of the code is being monitored by the National Gas Consumers Council (NGCC) and the Electricity Consumers Council (ECC). Both the report prepared by the NGCC and the interim report of the ECC indicate that the industries are operating the code satisfactorily. I would wish to consider the ECC's final report, expected around the turn of the year, before considering whether further changes are necessary to the code.
§ Mr. Parryasked the Secretary of State for Energy how many disconnections were carried out by (a) the North West Gas and (b) Merseyside and North Wales electricity board on Merseyside because of customers' arrears in each of the past five years to the latest date.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThis is a matter for the industries themselves. I have asked the chairmen of the British Gas Corporation and the Electricity Council to provide the information direct to the hon. Member.