Energy supplier EDF has suspended forced installations of prepayment metres pending a review of its processes for dealing with customers who fall into arrears on their accounts.

The country's second-largest energy supplier, which has around five millions customers, acted after British Gas suspended forced installations following a Times investigation revealed that debt collectors had forced their way into the homes of vulnerable customers.

EDF said it forced customers onto prepayment metres only as a "very last resort" when other avenues have been exhausted, and the company is understood to have acted out of caution following the British Gas case, rather than in response to evidence of bad practice.

Energy companies can apply for court warrants to force installation of prepayment metres on customers that have fallen into arrears and not responded to attempts to discuss repayment.

Suppliers are required to pursue all available alternatives over a six month period and are not permitted to force prepayment on vulnerable customers.

EDF said it had applied for 13,766 court warrants to force installation last year and had proceeded in about half of those cases.

In a statement EDF said: "EDF only seeks to move a customer to prepayment without their consent as a very last resort and only when we determine it is safe and practical. In 2022, we applied for 13,766 warrants in relation to domestic customer debt and in around half of these cases we took the decision not to proceed once the customer had engaged and we understood their circumstances.

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"Throughout this process, customers can contact EDF at any point to request a change of payment method. We will be delighted to hear from them and our advisors will help.

"We regularly review and update these processes and so we are confident they are fit for purpose. Nonetheless we are currently reviewing them again to reconfirm they are robust and see if we can make any improvements. We have suspended forced installation of prepayment meters while we conduct this latest review."

EDF has also called on the Government to maintain energy support to households at the current rate to help those struggling with energy bills.

State support is due to be reduced in April, with typical household bills rising from £2,500 to £3,000.

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"We've tried our best to support as many customers as possible this winter. We've invested millions more on customer support and hired hundreds of extra customer advisors to try to help. But the scale of the problem people are facing means that we cannot tackle this as individual suppliers alone.

"The Government should cancel the reduction to EPG and keep bills at no more than £2,500."