Speeches by Billington.

“I was thinking particularly about only scratching the surface, needing it to be more long term and those kinds of things.”

“It is thanks to the Secretary of State and, indeed, our Chancellor that we already anticipate a £10 million state-of-the-art health hub in Thanet, which is opening this autumn. That will have a community diagnostic centre, expanded GP services, podiatry, cardiac and respiratory teams, MRIs and support for mental health…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman, but may I remind him that although the Access to Work scheme may well be broken, measures in the Bill and the “Pathways to Work” Green Paper deal specifically with how we should improve it for our constituents, many of whom rely on it as a way of ensuring that they can become fully able peop…”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“I thank the Secretary of State for the improvements she has made to the Bill, which are extremely reassuring for my constituents, 9,000 of whom are on personal independence payments and are now reassured. Some, however, are concerned about the number of adults who could be put into poverty, following the publication of…”

“This is on network and policy costs. We have heard that consumers who switch to electrified heating are required to keep their gas meter and continue paying the gas standing charge until they clear their energy debt. Do you agree that this presents a barrier to decarbonising homes and do you plan to change this?”

“I will follow up on that, therefore, and ask where your current thinking is—we have asked you this before, but it is important to regularly check in—and where your conversations with Government are on an energy social tariff.”

“You won’t be surprised by me asking you this. Do you agree that allowing more consumers in energy debt to switch to a cheaper tariff would help them better manage their finances while supporting the adoption of lower carbon heating options—combining those two things together?”

“Following up on dealing with the debt-related costs, you have been considering redistributing those costs between consumers—standard credit and direct debit—and your analysis suggests that that would mean a £200 million benefit for low-income consumers. Why was that work paused and are you considering resuming it?”

“Why is Ofgem proposing a one-off rather than a permanent energy debt relief scheme? Will support be made automatically or will it rely on consumers applying?”

“Is Ofgem planning to level out costs across all payment methods?”

“Given that standard credit customers are considered more likely to go into debt and struggle to afford their energy bills, why are they made to pay more under the energy price cap compared with people on other payment methods?”

“They do get triaged by bots though, don’t they?”

“How many of the complaints or concerns are managed by chatbots versus human beings?”

“To follow up on that, do you still have human beings in your call centres or is this all being done by chatbots?”

“Thank you. Is it cheaper for energy suppliers to pay the compensation required by the Energy Ombudsman than to invest in proper customer service?”

“I am suggesting that it is not actually that difficult.”

“Sorry, Dr Roy, but I have worked in call centres and followed scripts, and like most consumers, I have also been at the other end of those phone calls when you come to impasse. It seems to me that, at that point, it should be quite easy to say in the script, “Thank you very much, Ms Billington. I’m sorry we can’t resol…”

“It is quite a lot of error though, isn’t it?”

“I take your point. Alex, thank you also for what Citizens Advice do. I need to declare an interest in that I worked for Citizens Advice for some time and know the value of what you do as well as valuing the bureau in my constituency. You have the statutory advocacy role for microbusinesses, which is particularly import…”