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14 Oct 2003 : Column 151W—continued
Offshore Wind Farms
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the Crown Estate's plans to charge rent in respect of offshore wind farms. [131261]
Mr. Timms: The Crown Estate owns the seabed around the United Kingdom to the limit of the territorial sea. The Crown Estates Act 1961 requires The Crown Estate Commissioners to maintain and enhance the value of the Estate and the return obtained from it, with due regard to the requirements of good estate management. Companies entering into lease agreements for wind farm developments with the Crown Estate will be charged an appropriate rental for the site. Following discussion with industry and the British Wind Energy Association, The Crown Estate has indicated that, up to 2010, the basis for calculating rentals for new wind farm site leases will be unchanged from the current 2 per cent. of gross revenue, with a rent review after 20 years.
The Government have committed themselves to bringing forward legislation as soon as the Parliamentary timetable allows to facilitate the construction of wind farms beyond territorial waters in a Renewable Energy Zone (REZ). Our intention is that The Crown Estate will have powers to licence areas of the seabed in the REZ and will be able to charge a rental for use of the sea bed.
Post Offices
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make it her policy to urge the Post Office to organise public meetings (a) before decisions are made about closures and (b) for each individual closure proposal once the decisions are made on a particular area; and if she will make a statement. [131432]
Mr. Timms: The development of post office closure proposals under the urban reinvention programme and the associated public consultation arrangements are operational matters for Post Office Ltd. within the framework of the Code of Practice agreed with Postwatch.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on her policy on the (a) proposals by the Post Office to close post offices in South Portsmouth in 12 months and (b) closure by the Post Office of financially viable local offices. [131433]
Mr. Timms: Post Office Ltd. has recently put forward to public consultation its post office closure proposals for Portsmouth, South constituency under its revised arrangements for the urban network reinvention programme whereby proposals are put forward on an area-by-area basis using Parliamentary constituencies as a guide. This will result in a 'once over the ground' approach bringing clarity and greater certainty to the future shape of the network in each area. Public consultation has been extended from four to six weeks.
Post Office Ltd.'s area closure proposals are determined by a range of factors including the numbers of offices in close proximity to each other and current
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and projected business volumes. The aim of the programme is to create a sustainable network of viable urban post offices.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much compensation has been paid to the Post Office for their closure programme; and how much more is expected to be paid. [131434]
Mr. Timms: Parliament has approved funding of up to £180 million for compensation payments under the urban post office network reinvention programme. To date, £38,554,936 has been paid to Post Office Ltd.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations she has received about the proposals by the Post Office to close local post offices in South Portsmouth; what has been her response; and if she will make a statement. [131435]
Mr. Timms: Five letters have been received from the hon. Member from Portsmouth, South and one joint letter from Councillors Goble, Andrew and Bentley of Portsmouth city council. The responses explained the rationale for the urban post office network reinvention programme and that the process to determine the closure of individual offices is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd. which they carry out in accordance with the formal public consultation process under the Code of Practice agreed with Postwatch.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make representations to the Post Office about the number of proposed closures of local post offices in South Portsmouth; and if she will make a statement. [131436]
Mr. Timms: Proposals for post office closures and final decisions on them, following public consultation under the Code of Practice, are operational matters for Post Office Ltd. The Government do not have a role in the process to determine the closure of individual post offices.
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many rural sub-post offices have closed since 1 March. [131484]
Mr. Timms: I understand that Post Office Ltd. produces information on post office closures on a quarterly basis. For the quarter up to the end of March 2003, there were 61 net closures throughout the rural post office network with 43 net closures in the quarter to end of June 2003, the latest quarter for which figures are currently available.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many post offices she has visited since she took up her appointment. [131721]
Mr. Timms: My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State visits post offices regularly in her capacity as the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, in her capacity as a Member of Parliament, and as a customer.
Power Failures
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the effects of the recent power failures affecting London on the national economy; and what the possible causes of the power failures are. [132260]
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Mr. Timms: The major power failure affecting London and parts of Kent on the 28 August 2003 occurred at 18:20 and lasted 41 minutes. Due to the timing and duration of the interruption there was transport disruption that affected a large number of people travelling home at the end of the working day, however the Department of Trade and Industry has not conducted a formal assessment of the impact of the event on the UK economy.
According to National Grid Transco, the cause of the failure was the incorrect operation of a protective device at Wimbledon substation. My Engineering Inspectorate is currently carrying out a detailed investigation of the circumstances of the incident, including the impact on the transport infrastructure.
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent assessment her Department has made of the cost of the loss of power through overhead power lines in terms of transmission costs compared to underground transfer; and what research she has commissioned to assess the amount of energy lost overhead and the impact on the cost and efficiency of such lines. [132261]
Mr. Timms: The National Grid Company (NGT) has indicated that losses from overhead lines are approximately 50 per cent. greater than for underground cables for power flows at the same voltage.
The cost of losses is not separately available for overhead lines and underground cables. However, NGT advise that total transmission losses (including overhead lines, underground cables and transformers) account for about 1.5 per cent. of energy transferred on the England and Wales transmission network or a cost of around £90 million p.a. (This compares with average losses on the distribution system of approximately 7 per cent.).
The available data indicate that replacing overhead lines with underground cables could not be justified by gains in efficiency, due to the significantly higher capital cost of underground cables.
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment her Department has made of the risks to the United Kingdom of a major power failure in January to February 2004; and what plans are in place to prevent power incapacity at the coldest time of year. [132262]
Mr. Timms: Maintaining the reliability of energy supplies is one of four key goals set out in the Government's Energy White Paper.
It is not Government's role to second-guess the electricity market. Rather, through competitive markets, participants have strong financial incentives to maintain reliable supplies of electricity. These incentives are backed by a number of licence conditions and statutory obligations on National Grid, electricity suppliers and generators, which are enforced by Ofgem.
The Government do have a co-ordinating role to ensure that information is provided to the market. A major component of this is our work with Ofgem, through the joint energy security of supply working group to monitor energy security.
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National Grid also informs the market as to the forecast likely supply and demand position using a variety of publications and industry fora. In addition National Grid notifies market participants of tight reserve margins nearer to real time through a hierarchy of alert notices.
National Grid Transco's report on the outlook for gas and electricity markets was published today by Ofgem, and a copy of the report has been placed in the Libraries of the House.
National Grid has announced that it will be tendering for additional reserve capacity to enable it to mange the risks of short-term plant failure and changes in demand. These contracts would be in place prior to the winter period.
In addition, NOT is considering with participants to the Gas Network Code proposals to reduce the risk of supply disruptions in the gas market and the potential impact of these on gas-fired generation to the electricity market. Any formal proposals for modification would need to be considered by Ofgem, in light of their statutory duties, prior to implementation.
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the cost to the National Grid was of loss of power through (a) trees falling on a power line, (b) high winds causing interruption of power in high wires carried over pylons, (c) birds landing on such lines and (d) other major loss of power from other causes in the last 12 months. [132263]
Mr. Timms: The number of incidents on NGT's network, which caused an immediate loss of supplies in the 12 months to 30 September 2003, is 10.
These incidents break down as follows:
- (a) trees—none
(b) high winds—none
(c) birds—none
(d) other—10 incidents (of which three are attributed to lightning strikes, one to a light aircraft colliding with an overhead line, four due to protection operations, one to plant failure, and one as a result of a construction incident—the losses of supply in these incidents range from under 1 minute to approximately 40 minutes).
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