Utilities Act 2000

84 The gas code

(1) Schedule 2B to the 1986 Act is amended as follows.

(2) After paragraph 6 (meters for disabled persons) there is inserted—

“Use of pre-payment meters

6A A pre-payment meter installed by an authorised supplier on any premises shall not be used to recover any sum other than a sum owing to an authorised supplier in respect of the supply of gas to those premises or the provision of the meter.”

(3) In paragraph 7 (recovery of gas charges etc.)—

(a) in sub-paragraph (1)(a) for the words from “the consumer's” to “him” there is substituted “any premises of his (in this paragraph referred to as “the premises”)”;

(b) sub-paragraph (2) shall cease to have effect; and

(c) in sub-paragraph (3) for paragraphs (a) and (b) there is substituted—

“(a) install a pre-payment meter on the premises in place of the existing meter; or

(b) cut off the supply to the premises by disconnecting the service pipe at the meter or by such other means as he thinks fit;

and the supplier may recover any expenses incurred in so doing from the consumer.”

(4) In paragraph 23(2), for paragraph (c) there is substituted—

“(c) exercising a power conferred by paragraph 3(5) or 7(3)(a) (and testing gas fittings, and making any adjustments required for their safe operation, after the exercise of the power).”