Carmichael calls for ministerial meeting on RTS shutdown impact on energy customers

Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, has called on the government to convene a meeting of MPs, officials and energy stakeholders to discuss the upcoming shutdown of radio teleswitch services for energy customers. 

Speaking during a debate on the issue in Parliament led by Dave Doogan MP, Mr Carmichael noted local concerns about the switch-off, currently expected in June 2025, and the potential harm to customers in rural and island communities, where smart meter rollout has been slow and at times unreliable and where many families use tariffs like Total Heating, Total Control which is only available to RTS meters.

Mr Carmichael previously secured a commitment for a meeting with the Energy Minister, energy suppliers and consumer groups to discuss the upcoming switch off of the BBC’s longwave radio transmission, which will affect almost a million energy customers across the UK. As of 1 February 2024 there are still 910,406 RTS meters in GB homes and small businesses. of which 246,662 (27.1%) are in Scotland. At the current rate of disconnections from RTS meters, it will take 29 years to end their use in Scotland, while limiting the reliability of RTS meters and their access to favourable tariffs.

Speaking in the debate, Mr Carmichael said:

“The hon. Gentleman has touched on the fact that radio teleswitching is going. It is an analogue technology, and we will be fortunate if it lasts until next June—it could collapse at any second. It will be replaced by smart meters, and surely it is not beyond the wit of man to design a smart meter that provides something like “total heating with total control”. They do not at present, but that is just because they are not designed to do so. Is it not the case that this could be fixed if the regulator got the companies and the different players together and told them to produce something that suits the customers, not just themselves?”

Responding, Dave Doogan MP said:

“The right hon. Gentleman will have no small number of these customers in his constituency, and he touches on the important point of the vagueness around this. Customers are being told that they must do this, and when they ask for any detail about that which they must do, it is scant, vague and conflicting.”

Later in the debate, Mr Carmichael questioned the minister responsible:

“I raised that with the former Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s questions earlier this year, and he agreed to convene a roundtable where we got everybody in the room, because there had just been too much blame-passing around the various partners. That meeting got overtaken by the election, but it happened without parliamentarians at the table. Will the Minister now look at the possibility of reconvening that meeting with parliamentarians so that there is that element of accountability at the table?”

Responding for the government, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Consumers Miatta Fahnbulleh MP said:

“Yes, I am very keen to reconvene that. It is absolutely essential that we work with hon. Members across the House who represent constituencies that we know will be affected. From our perspective, we have a big job to engage consumers to ensure that they are aware and that the transition is working. We are keen to work across the House to do that. One of the outcomes of the roundtable that was put in place was that the taskforce has been established—with Ofgem, industry and the Government—to manage the transition and to put and inject the urgency that we need to see in the ongoing process.”

Reacting after the debate, Mr Carmichael said:

“Clearly there is still a need for a greater sense of urgency in government but I am glad that ministers seem to be awakening to the risks around the RTS shutdown at last. I shall be reaching out to colleagues to see how we can work together and with the government on this issue going forward.”