Grant Shapps banned energy ministers from taking foreign trips

theguardian.com:

Ministers in the newly formed energy department faced a ban on foreign trips due to a mounting backlog of issues raised with them by MPs, the Guardian can reveal.

Grant Shapps issued the edict last month in a bid to speed up the “outrageously” slow response to cases raised on behalf of constituents, some of whom were struggling to claim support with their energy bills during the cost of living crisis.

A disabled woman in Cumbria was said to have been left without advice from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero when she struggled to claim financial assistance.

According to the local MP, Tim Farron, she was told she was eligible for the warm homes discount, having been forced to give up her job due to a degenerative health condition.

The scheme ran until March and applied discounts to the electricity bills of people on low incomes or who received the guarantee credit portion of pension credit.

The woman struggled to claim the £150 of support because her husband’s name appeared on their energy bill, Farron said. He raised the issue on 17 January with the business department, which was later split up during Rishi Sunak’s recent reshuffle to create a standalone energy department.

After more than a month, he was told by the correspondence unit that “due to the volume” of emails, a reply was being held up. The official who wrote to him added it was “with the minister’s private office awaiting signature” and would be released “shortly”.

Farron said he waited so long for a response that his constituent was no longer eligible for the warm homes discount scheme, as it ends this month.

He told the Guardian: “It’s absolutely appalling that disabled women, like my constituent, are struggling to pay their energy bills because