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Nuclear Waste
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what discussions she has had with BNFL regarding identification of new storage sites for nuclear waste; and if she will make a statement; [22345]
- (2) what discussions she has had with the Scottish Executive regarding proposals to remove nuclear waste from current storage containers in Scotland and the construction of new storage containers; [22347]
(3) what discussions she has had with BNFL regarding removal of nuclear waste in Scotland from current storage; and if she will make a statement; [22346]
(4) what recent discussions she has had with the Scottish Executive regarding storage of nuclear waste at nuclear installations in Scotland. [22348]
Liabilities Management Authority
Mr. Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when (a) Thorp and (b) the Sellafield MOX plant will be transferred to the Liabilities Management Authority; and if she will make a statement. [22115]
Mr. Wilson: It is important that Sellafield continues to be managed as a single, unified site. Therefore Thorp and the Sellafield MOX plant will be transferred to the Liabilities Management Authority (LMA) following its establishment. The necessary legislation will be brought forward in due course.
Mr. Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what financial contribution BNFL will make towards the decommissioning of (a) Thorp and (b) the Sellafield MOX plant; and if she will make a statement. [22114]
Mr. Wilson: As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry indicated in her statement to the House on 28 November, the Government intend that a Liabilities Management Authority (LMA) will take on responsibility for the UK's historic public sector civil nuclear liabilities and the associated assets including funds earmarked by BNFL for decommissioning and clean-up.
It is important that Sellafield continues to be managed as a unified site. Therefore once the LMA is established, ownership of both Thorp and the Sellafield MOX plant will transfer from BNFL to the LMA. The expectation is that the commercial revenues from these plants will be sufficient to fund their decommissioning costs.
Wind Farms
Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what action she has taken to encourage the development of offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom. [22333]
Mr. Wilson: The Government are vigorously encouraging the development of all forms of renewable energy including wind energy, both onshore and offshore.
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The main mechanism through which this development will be supported is the Renewables Obligation and the associated Renewables Obligation Scotland. This will oblige all licensed electricity suppliers in Great Britain to supply a specified and growing proportion of their electricity from renewable sources. The Obligation will create a long-term market incentive for renewables which taken with the exemption of renewables electricity from the climate change levy (CCL) and continuing support for NFFO projects, is expected to be worth over £1 billion by 2010.
The Government have put in place substantial direct funding specifically for the development of offshore wind farms. A total of £74 million has been allocated in the form of capital grants to support the development of this young industry. This fund of £74 million includes £25 million of the £100 million announced by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister last March, £39 million from the DTI and £10 million from the New Opportunities Fund.
The Government have also recently consulted on the offshore consents process, and plan to bring forward a streamlined approach which should make it easier for project developers to get their projects up and running.
It is very encouraging that 18 projects for the wind farms successfully pre-qualified for seabed leases from the Crown Estate earlier this year.
BAE Systems
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what discussions the Government have had with BAE Systems about job losses at their Woodford site; and if she will make a statement. [21770]
Mr. Wilson: My officials are already in close touch with BAE Systems. The North West Regional Development Agency and the local Employment Service are also working closely with the company but I am looking carefully at arrangements to ensure that Government are deploying their resources as effectively as possible to mitigate the effect of the Regional Jet programme closure.
The prospects for the aerospace sector in the medium to long term remain robust.
E-commerce
Linda Perham: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the need for international agreements on the practice of e-commerce. [22299]
Mr. Alexander: The Government believe it is important that we have a clear, coherent, pro-competitive and predictable international framework for e-commerce and are working for this at European and global levels through our bilateral and multilateral channels. To be effective, this work needs the involvement of Governments, providers and consumers. The Government therefore believe that co-regulation is often the most appropriate way to address many international e-commerce issues, such as cross- border Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and mutual recognition between e-commerce codes of conduct.
The UK is a party to a number of bilateral and multilateral arrangements which apply to commerce generally including e-commerce
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Multilaterally, the Hague Conference on Private International Law is discussing a possible convention on jurisdiction in civil and commercial matters and this would cover e-commerce unless a decision is taken to exclude such transactions. The UK is playing a full part in these negotiations.
Energy Industry
Linda Perham: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the need for Government subsidy of the energy industry. [22296]
Mr. Wilson: An assessment of the need for Government support in the energy sector is one aspect of the current Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) review of energy policy which is due to report by the end of the year. However, creating the right framework for competitive markets will remain a central part of Government policy.
Mr. Grogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent assessment she has made that the projections in Energy Paper 68 remain credible; and what plans she has to produce new projections. [22344]
Mr. Wilson: The projections made in Energy Paper 68, published in November 2000, are long-term projections. At this stage there is no reason to believe that the projections are anything other than soundly based for longer-term assessments. There are no plans to update the projections in the immediate future.
Mr. Grogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on how many occasions during the last 24 months the monthly average price of (a) oil, (b) gas and (c) coal has been within the range of the medium/ long-term high and low fuel price projections contained in Energy Paper 68; and on how many occasions prices of each of the fuels have been (i) above and (ii) below these ranges. [22343]
Mr. Wilson: The table shows, by number of months, how crude oil prices during the last 24 months have compared with the EP68 assumptions for the years 2005 and 2010.
| 2005 | 2010 | |
|---|---|---|
| Within range | 2 | 2 |
| Above range | 22 | 22 |
| Below range | 0 | 0 |
The table shows, by number of months, how gas prices during the last 24 months have compared with the EP68 assumptions for the years 2005 and 2010.
| 2005 | 2010 | |
|---|---|---|
| Within range | 17 | 20 |
| Above range | 7 | 4 |
| Below range | 0 | 0 |
International coal prices have remained within the medium and long-term range assumed in EP68 in every month during the last 24 months.
Results may differ according to the exact comparator used.The potential for prices to move outside the assumed long-term ranges was acknowledged in EP68.
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British Coal
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans she has to review the arrangements for apportioning surpluses in the pre- privatisation pension schemes for the former employees of British Coal. [19341]
Mr. Wilson [holding answer 10 December 2001]: The agreement that was reached in 1994 with the Trustees of pension schemes for former British Coal staff and employees has supported the schemes' investment strategies, and has meant that members' have been awarded bonuses totalling around 30 per cent. These bonus awards are additional to the inflation linked increases applied to pensions each year to maintain their real value. The Government regularly review all information that they receive on these issues, and expect to be able to make a further announcement shortly.
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