Michael Dugher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the data security of smart meters.

Andrea Leadsom

The Department has worked with industry and security experts, including GCHQ, to design a smart metering system that has robust end-to-end security. The Department’s Data Access and Privacy Framework puts consumers in control of who has access to their data except where energy suppliers and networks have access for regulated purposes, such as to enable accurate monthly billing. All organisations involved in communicating with smart meters are required to comply with a detailed set of security obligations, with each aspect of the system subject to regular, independent security assurance.

Smart meters will not store data such as a consumer’s name, address or bank details. A key design principle for the system is the maintenance of user privacy. Any transaction of data which could be deemed ‘personal’, including energy consumption data, is encrypted so only the intended recipient can see it.