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The Fox Report Barry Fox’s technology column Smart meters follow-up T he contentious TV adverts for smart meters (see Fox Report, December 2020), which suggest that putting a smart meter under your stairs will help the UK have more wind turbines, were followed by fullpage newspaper adverts pushing the non-sequitur even further by picturing a wind turbine and claiming that: ‘by having that odd, plastic box (a smart meter) you’ll be helping Britain’s energy system use more renewable resources… meaning more wind and solar, and less coal’. (See right, the advert in London’s Evening Standard, 16 November 2020.) As previously reported, I complained to the UK’s ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) about the TV adverts and followed through with a fresh complaint about the newspaper ads. I think both complaints have been rejected. But why can I only ‘think’ that, rather than know so? No reply or explanation It’s because the ASA has now adopted a new policy for dealing with all complaints. If your complaint is rejected, you simply hear nothing. And you don’t know what length of nothing heard means rejection, because the ASA does not give a timescale to help decode silence. Neither does the ASA offer any way for complainants to check progress or non-progress. What the complainant does get, though, is a message from market research company IPSOS, hired by the ASA to follow through complaints with a customer satisfaction survey. But of course, complainants cannot usefully complete the survey without knowing whether they are still waiting for news from the ASA, or not. The Covid crisis has made life difficult for everyone, and many companies and public service bodies have done a remarkable job of coping. Less so, it seems, the ASA. 1551V ventilated enclosures Legal, decent, honest and truthful? – the ASA seem to be shy about stating its position. Rejected Only because I asked for press comment, I can now report that the ASA rejected my complaint about the TV adverts because it had previously rejected complaints on earlier adverts (April 2019) for smart meters that included the honest acknowledgement that ‘smart meters can’t solve climate change on their own but with the smarter, more energy efficient grid they help to create, they’re a start’. ! w ne Learn more: hammfg.com/1551v More than 5000 standard stocked enclosure designs uksales<at>hammfg.com • 01256 812812 8 Practical Electronics | February | 2021 The ASA had said: ‘We understood that the data captured and reported by smart meters was intended to help the national grid to anticipate demand and plan energy provision more effectively, with less reliance on fossil fuels. We acknowledged that take up of smart meters was one of many factors that contributed to more efficient energy. Nevertheless, we considered the points Smart Energy GB had made, and the BEIS, the Committee on Climate Change and Ofgem comments that they had cited, supported the view that take up of smart meters would play a part, and would therefore contribute to the environmental benefits associated with more efficient energy use’. Emboldened by the ASA’s previous baptism, the new ads even more brazenly link wind power with smart meters, picturing a wind turbine and saying, ‘by having that odd, plastic box (a smart meter) you’ll be helping Britain’s energy system use more renewable resources… meaning more wind and solar, and less coal’ (https://bit.ly/3pe-feb21-asa). ‘very helpful’ An ASA spokesperson says my rocket science suggestion that the ASA should at least give complainants a timescale clue to when they should assume their complaint has been rejected is a ‘very helpful suggestion (and) something that struck a chord immediately and we will look to implement something like this.’ But as it is now some three weeks since the ASA acknowledged my new complaint, and I’ve heard nothing, I can only deduce that: a) the complaint has been silently rejected and b) my ‘very helpful suggestion’ has not been implemented. I’ve now asked the ASA’s chief executive Guy Parker how it came to pass that on his watch the body which is paid big bucks to protect us from adverts that aren’t ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’ judged it decent to leave complainants dangling with no idea whether their complaint has been understood and is being acted on, or has been misunderstood, refuted, rejected or just plain lost in the system. I await his reply with interest – but not much hope – just as I await a judgment on whether the smart meter under my stairs really is the reason that there are now so many more wind turbines working for us. NEW! 5-year collection 2015-2019 All 60 issues from Jan 2015 to Dec 2019 for just £35.95 i files ready or ediate do nload See page 6 for further details and other great back-issue offers. 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