§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many households(a) in England and Wales and (b) in the Buckingham constituency have 279W been disconnected by (i) water companies, (ii) electricity companies and (iii) telecommunications companies in each year since 1992. [32184]
§ Mr. WilsonThe disconnection of domestic properties for non-payment of water bills was abolished by the Water Industry Act 1999 with effect from 1 July 1999. The number of disconnections for England and Wales since 1992 is set out in Table 1.
Table 1: Number of domestic water disconnections for non-payment in England and Wales Number 1992–93 18,636 1993–94 12,452 1994–95 10,047 1995–96 5,826 1996–97 3,148 1997–98 1,907 1998–99 1,129 April-June 1999 127 Note:
Information on water disconnections collected by company
Source:
Ofwat
The number of households in Great Britain that have been disconnected for non-payment by electricity and gas companies in each year from 1992 is given in Table 2.
Table 2: Number of domestic disconnections for non-payment for gas and electricity in Great Britain1,2 Gas Electricity 1992 15,707 18,018 1993 16,068 3,700 1994 16,308 1,200 1995 14,511 838 1996 8,826 477 1997 29,771 460 1998 29,500 400 1999 22,177 373 2000 16,500 300 Notes:
- 1. Data for 2001 are not yet available
- 2. Data for England and Wales are not separately available
Source:
Ofgem
The number of households in the United Kingdom that have been disconnected for non-payment by British Telecom in each year from 1998 is given in Table 3.
280W
Table 3: BT net disconnections for non-payment for the United Kingdom Average Number of Residential lines during period1 Number of net disconnections for non-payment per 100 residential lines (disconnections minus reconnections)2 Number of net disconnections (a) (b) (a*b)/100 January-June 1998 20,139,000 1.5 302,000 July-December 1998 20,100,000 1.5 302,000 January-June 1999 20,071,000 1.4 281,000 July-December 1999 20,065,000 1.5 301,000 January-June 1999 20,038,000 1.6 321,000 July-December 1999 19,962,000 1.6 319,000 January-June 1999 19,954,000 1.5 299,000 1998 — — 604,000 1999 — — 582,000 2000 — — 640,000 1 Market Information, http://www.oftel.gov.uk/publications/marketinfo/index.htm
2 Oftel, http://www.oftel.gov.uk/consumer/initiatives/disc0900.htm
Note:
No data are publicly available on a regional basis or for years prior to 1998. Data refer to BT only.
Data are not available to produce numbers of disconnections for electricity, gas, water or telecommunications in the Buckingham constituency.