Another justice data gap: warrants to force-fit energy meters
The i newspaper has reported on a serious data gap in the justice system - whether courts are still granting warrants to force-fit prepayment energy meters.
The i found that months after courts were told to stop granting warrants to force-fit meters without proper justification, thousands of warrants for forced entry are still being granted to energy firms.
But the Ministry of Justice doesn’t record how many of these are to fit meters - so campaigners fear energy firms may still be force-fitting meters for vulnerable customers.
This story has alarming echoes of our previous research on justice data gaps, where we found many examples of failures to collect basic data, even on topics of clear public interest.
What’s the story?
In 2022, an estimated 600,000 people were forced to switch from credit to prepayment energy meters. When the money in a prepayment meter runs out, your electricity and heating switch off.
In February 2023, in response to reports in the i that warrants were being issued without proper scrutiny, magistrates were told to stop ruling on applications. The only exceptions were for commercial buildings, to investigate issues like safety, or where firms could satisfy a court “as to the integrity of their procedures”.
However, the i has found that between February and April this year, more than 13,000 warrants were still granted by courts.
It’s possible each was valid under the new rules. But the MoJ hasn’t recorded which category they fell into - so we simply don’t know if some courts or firms are still not following the new guidance.
Why it matters
The MoJ’s inability to tell us this is worrying. It could be that all the applications are fine - or not. Without recording the reasons, no-one knows, and vulnerable people could still be left cut off without light and heat, unable to turn on the heating or cook a hot meal.
In response, Dan Carden MP described the MoJ’s failure to record data as “astonishingly negligent”.
And Caroline Lucas MP told the i that “forced prepayment meter installations on vulnerable households could be taking place, yet the Government and the public don’t even know about it because the relevant department has failed to carry out basic due diligence and collect the relevant data”.
But isn’t it hard to collect this data?
In the era of agile digital systems, it really shouldn’t be hard for magistrates’ courts to record this information.
Common Platform, the new digital case management system being rolled out across courts, should be adaptable enough to start recording data that’s clearly in the public interest. (While it requires clerks to type in a few extra words, that’s hardly disproportionate for a high-profile safety issue.)
And people have been asking for this data for months. The i first warned that the Government wasn’t recording it in late 2022, and the number of prepayment warrants was the subject of written questions from MPs in December 2022, January 2023 and February 2023, with the MoJ warning them in response that the data recorded couldn’t identify prepayment warrants.
So either the MoJ simply failed to respond to the clear demand for the information - or it’s too technically demanding for Common Platform to add and deploy a small change like an extra form field (if that’s the case, it's a far worse indictment of HMCTS’s £1.3 billion digital reform programme).
The bigger picture
Sadly, we’ve heard this story many times before.
Whether it’s courts failing to record the reasons defendants are remanded in custody, or whether defendants have a lawyer, or the conditions attached to bail - data gaps in our justice system often mean we can’t get answers to basic questions, even after repeated, high-profile requests.
Households and campaigners deserve to know whether courts are continuing to wave through applications - a practice that’s already left millions disconnected from their energy. This is a data gap the MoJ urgently needs to fill.
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For more on this topic, see our research on justice data gaps. If you’re interested in this or any of our other work, we’d love to hear from you. Please do get in touch at contact@centreforpublicdata.org.