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6 Feb 2004 : Column 1096W—continued
Smart Award
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps have been taken to
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ensure that support is provided by the wider business support infrastructure to assist Smart award-winners to take the outputs of their projects into the market place. [152056]
Nigel Griffiths: The Smart scheme in England has now been replaced by Grant for Research and Development. All potential applicants for the grants are urged to discuss their plans with their local Business Link operator before making an application and grant recipients are strongly encouraged to maintain a dialogue with Business Link throughout the period of the project and beyond. Business Link acts as a gateway to most of the services the Government offers to small and medium-sized businesses in England and Business Link Advisers can offer information and advice on all aspects of setting up and running a business. Business Link provides advice to over 300,000 small businesses every year at start up and growth stages with the quality and reach of that advice increasing all the time.
Solar Energy (Residential Dwellings)
Dr. Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made in encouraging the use of solar panels on residential dwellings. [152868]
Mr. Timms [holding answer 5 February 2004]: Under the Clear Skies initiative, which supports the installation of solar hot water heating systems among other small-scale renewables, 1,585 individual household grants have been approved with a total value of £792,000. Of these, 622 with a value of £311,000 have been paid to date.
Under the Community stream of Clear Skies, funds offered for solar hot water heating have a value totalling £968,734. It is difficult to give an exact number of dwellings that this equates to but it is estimated at approximately 560.
Under the Major Photovoltaic Demonstration Programme, which provides grants for the installation of solar electric panels, 408 Stream 1 individual small-scale (0.5 kWp to 5 kWp) applications have been approved at a total value of £2,843,496. Of these 221 with a value of £1,436,978 have been paid to date. Approximately 80 per cent. of these are for residential dwellings.
Under Stream 2 (medium and large-scale) of the Programme, 25 group-housing (5 kWp to 100 kWp) applications have been approved with a total value of £2,684,866. These applications equate to approximately 500 roofs/dwellings.
Stop Now Orders
Ross Cranston: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the Stop Now Orders that were issued in (a) 2001, (b) 2002 and (c) 2003; whether any of these were for traders based in the area of Dudley metropolitan borough council; and if she will make a statement. [152462]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Since June 2001 when the Stop Now Orders (EC Directive) came into force, seven stop now orders have been sought and obtained from the Courts. In 2001 one was obtained by a Trading Standards Department. In 2002 two were obtained by Trading
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Standards Departments and two by the Office of Fair Trading. In 2003 one was obtained by a Trading Standards Department and one by the Office of Fair Trading. None of the orders were concerned with traders based in the area of Dudley metropolitan council.
US-UK Energy Dialogue
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to her answer of 9 December 2003, Official Report, column 454W, on the US-UK Energy Dialogue, on what dates the Commercial Working Group of the Dialogue has held meetings since March 2003; and where each of these meetings was held. [152982]
Mr. Timms: The commercial working group was developed by the US Department of Commerce and the Department of Trade and Industry as a forum to give US and UK energy companies a voice in discussions between the two Governments on bilateral energy co-operation, security and supply issues. It has met on two occasions—on 16 December 2002 in London and 26 February 2003 in Washington.
Wind Farms
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what assessment she has made of whether large-scale wind farm development will affect the risk of large-scale electricity blackouts, with particular reference to more remote parts of the UK; [152550]
- (2) what assessment she has made of the impact of large-scale intermittent windpower generation on the operation of conventional back-up; [152552]
(3) what assessment she has made of the risks to security and stability of supply from (a) large-scale intermittent windpower generation and (b) the diseconomy of part-time operation of conventional back-up. [152553]
Mr. Timms: Existing electricity trading arrangements incentives market participants to deliver secure supplies and to manage the effects of intermittent generation, along with other risks, in so doing. Our proposals for BETTA will ensure that market participants in all parts of Great Britain face a uniform set of trading arrangements.
Analysis carried out as part of the White Paper process shows that the electricity system could cope with an increasing reliance on renewable generation, including wind. The White Paper analysis also highlights that as the proportion of intermittent generation increases, so does the cost of maintaining stable supplies. These costs need to be managed and new ways found to minimise them. We are already funding research into this through the DTIs Renewable Energy programme and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's SUPERGEN programme. In addition, as part of our current capital grant programme we allocated in 2002 an additional £4 million to facilitate the demonstration of new control, storage and metering technologies.
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DTI and Ofgem will continue to monitor electricity security issues through the Joint Electricity Security of Supply working group (JESS).
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
Regional Assemblies
Mr. Swire: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many representations he has received from Devon constituents in support of plans for an elected regional assembly for the South West. [153075]
Mr. Raynsford: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister received 11 responses from Devon constituents in support of plans for an elected regional assembly for the South West.
In addition, the Government's soundings exercise, which was held last year, sought to determine the levels of interest in holding a referendum on establishing elected regional assemblies. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister received 61 responses from individuals in Devon, 20 of whom wanted a referendum, 40 of whom opposed such a referendum, and one of whom expressed no opinion. My right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister believed that there is not a high level of interest in the South West and has not initiated the local authority reviews that are the precursor to a referendum.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Sir Menzies Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the progress of discussions between NATO and the EU regarding a European Security and Defence Policy mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. [153324]
Mr. Straw: The UK's vision for Bosnia is a sovereign, independent and united country, with a democratic and accountable government, a free market economy and tolerance of minority rights. We expect it to fulfil its obligations to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. We wish to see Bosnia on an irreversible track towards European and Euro Atlantic integration. Getting there will require an evolution in the presences of the international community, including the EU and NATO. NATO Foreign Ministers agreed in December 2003 that the Alliance should start work with the EU on planning a possible EU mission under Berlin Plus arrangements. The Brussels European Council also in December 2003 endorsed this. Against this background, NATO and EU officials are taking forward planning on a possible EU mission, without prejudice to any formal decision at the June Istanbul summit to terminate SFOR.
The UK fully supports this process and wants to see NATO successfully terminate its SFOR mission in Bosnia, probably at the end of 2004, while maintaining a limited military operational presence in the country. This would be a significant step in Bosnia's development towards a self-sustaining future. We want to see an EU-led presence, which is robust, credible and able to
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provide a safe and secure environment allowing the EU to take forward its objectives in Bosnia. The UK has offered to take the first lead of this EU-led mission.
The UK wishes to see the residual NATO presence run defence outreach activities such as defence reform and Partnership for Peace programmes. We also believe it should retain some operational activities, such as hunting for indicted war criminals and counter-terrorist operations.
Bosnia provides an opportunity for NATO and the EU to put their commitment to co-operation into practice in the first major Berlin Plus operation. Effective consultation at all levels will be crucial. The EU will need to develop a joined-up approach, linking its economic, civil, development and military instruments. The UK looks forward to supporting these efforts.
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