Dorset has many thousands of park home residents and others who live in households without a direct relationship with an energy supplier.

Much to my regret, these residents will now have to wait until February 27 before they can apply for help with their energy bills akin to that which other households have been receiving throughout the winter.
Sadly, there is not even any certainty as to how long thereafter it will be before payments are made but several further months of delay seem possible.
This issue highlights the way in which, to my frustration, the wheels of government continue to grind far too slowly.
It was back in May last year that I raised in Parliament the eligibility of park home residents for payments under the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
I was promised an answer ‘later in the summer’.
In November, following rumours that local authorities would be made responsible, the minister told me: ‘The Government’s priority is to work with delivery partners to provide the £400 support to households at their primary residence’.
He said that: ‘Eligibility, timescales and method of delivery will be announced in the coming weeks’.
When I followed that up after several weeks, I was promised ‘an announcement as soon as possible’.
Just before Christmas we were promised that the scheme would be open in January.
Now that has been further delayed.
The continuing reluctance of many ministers to get a grip on their departmental officials is alarming.
For example, everyone accepts that there is a productivity crisis in the NHS.

An internal review to which the National Audit Office has made reference has been carried out. But my requests to ministers over three months to let me and others see the content of this review have been stalled, first by delay and now outright refusal.
The minister told me that: ‘We are unable to provide the information requested as it could prejudice the conduct of public affairs’.
I then asked ‘In what way the publication of information about NHS England productivity available to the National Audit Office could prejudice the conduct of public affairs?’.
The answer to that question is now overdue by several weeks which begs the question as to whether ministers or officials are preventing Parliament holding the NHS to account?

To end on a positive note, I asked the German Foreign Minister at a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg about the reluctance of Germany to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
Although the minister did not answer my question direct, the criticisms which I and other colleagues made, obviously hit home with the welcome announcement of Germany’s decision to provide tanks following soon after.