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SCOTLAND

Civil Service Appointments

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what the percentage of (a) females and (b) males was among (i) initial applicants and (ii) successful candidates in each of the promotion and recruitment exercises for posts in the senior civil service and in Band C (formerly Grade 7) in the Scotland Office and the Scottish Office since 1 January 1994. [188679]

Mrs. McGuire: The Scotland Office was established on 1 July 1999.

There has been no direct recruitment to the Scotland Office and most staff have been assigned on loan from the Scottish Executive. Since 1999, three promotion exercises have been commissioned, in conjunction with the Executive, to fill band C (formerly Grade 7) posts in the Scotland Office. Details of the gender split by initial and successful candidates is as follows:
Applications
Successful candidates
MaleFemaleMaleFemale
199943
2000211
200221

There have been no recruitment or promotion exercises to fill senior civil service posts in the Office. All SCS posts have been filled by staff assigned on loan or secondment.

Information on promotion and recruitment of staff in the former Scottish Office prior to 1999 is not held.

Scotland Act 1998 (Modifications of Schedule 5) Order

Mr. Tom Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland why no regulatory impact assessment has been prepared for the draft Scotland Act 1998 (Modifications of Schedule 5) Order 2004, laid before the House on 9 September. [192106]

Mrs. McGuire: The decision not to provide a Regulatory Impact Assessment is in accordance with the guidance "Better Policy Making: A Guide to Regulatory Impact Assessment" issued by the Cabinet Office. The draft Order varies the competence of the Scottish Parliament. The draft Order does not in itself have a direct or indirect impact (whether benefit or cost) on business, charities or the voluntary sector. It would not therefore have any regulatory impact.
 
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Scottish Passenger Rail Franchise

Mr. Tom Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether primary legislation will be required to devolve responsibilities in connection with the Scottish Passenger Rail Franchise to Ministers of the Scottish Executive. [192107]

Mrs. McGuire: The Government set out its proposals for the devolution of rail services in Scotland in the white paper, "The Future of Rail", in July 2004. The Government will introduce a Railways Bill when parliamentary time allows to provide for those measures that require primary legislation.

Transport Bodies

Mr. Tom Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what consultation there has been with Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority and Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive in connection with the draft statutory instrument, The Scotland Act 1998 (Modifications of Schedule 5) Order 2004, laid before the House on 9 September, insofar as it relates to the ability of Scottish Ministers to transfer the powers of those bodies, in relation to the provision and regulation of railways, to themselves. [191521]

Mrs. McGuire: The proposal to transfer the rail powers of the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority and Executive (SPTA/E) was set out in the Scottish Executive's transport white paper, "Scotland's Transport Future", published in June 2004. As this is a reserved matter, this had been agreed in principle with the Department for Transport beforehand. I understand that there have been a number of meetings between the Scottish Executive and SPTA and SPTE both before and after the publication of this paper at which this proposal was discussed.

If agreed, the draft Order laid before the House on 9 September (and which is also being considered by the Scottish Parliament) will extend the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, not the Scottish Ministers. It will then be for the Scottish Parliament to decide, should such measures be put before it, whether or not to transfer the powers of the SPTA/E to the Scottish Ministers.

Tsar Appointments

Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many tsars have been appointed with responsibilities which cover part of the work of his Department; and if he will make a statement. [191922]

Mrs. McGuire: The Scotland Office has not appointed any "tsars".

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Carbon Savings

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the cost effectiveness in terms of carbon savings, using Treasury Green Book Guidance for public sector investment, of the (a) Clear Skies Programme, (b) Community Energy Programme,
 
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(c) Innovation Programme, (d) Major PV Demonstration Programme and (e) the Scottish Communities and Householder Renewables Initiative. [193828]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The DTI's Clear Skies Programme, Technology Programme and Major PV Demonstration Programme, do not include a target for carbon savings in their objectives.

The main objectives of the DTI's (a) Clear Skies programme are to raise public awareness and support for renewable energy through the installation of household and community scale schemes, as well as making a contribution to carbon savings in the UK.

The programme is subject to annual audits, which monitor the programme against Key Performance Indicators including the number of household and community installations delivered and the growth in the installer base. In addition, on completion of the scheme, a full evaluation is planned which will consider the full impact, including carbon savings and cost effectiveness. This data is not currently available.

To date the programme has committed some £4.3 million to community applications (nearly 230) and some £2.5 million (over 4,200 grants) to household applications.

DEFRA's (b) Community Energy Programme aims to stimulate carbon savings of 0.08 MtC per annum by 2010. The assessment criteria include: social benefits—cost savings for households over the life of the scheme; economic benefits—cost savings for the public sector and public service organisations (other than public sector housing) over the life of the scheme as well as environmental benefits—reductions in carbon emissions over the life of the scheme. It is estimated that the cost effectiveness of lifetime carbon savings (£/tC) for 2003–04 from this programme is £89.

The DTI's (c) Technology Programme supports research, development and innovation and includes new and renewable energy sources (e.g. fuel cells, wind, wave and tidal power, photovoltaics, and energy crops). The annual budget for renewable energy is some £18 million per annum. Collaborative research and development projects encompass a range of risk from high to low levels of innovation, it is therefore difficult to estimate the potential contribution of these project to carbon saving in the future. One of the criteria for selection is "the environmental and social impacts of undertaking the project and how significant are they related to the economic benefits". The newly appointed Technology Strategy Board will in future be responsible for monitoring progress and performance against the Technology Strategy, assessing the effectiveness of the technology priorities and intervention methods used on an appropriate timescale, in order to inform future development of the strategy. The programme will be evaluated in due course.

The main objectives of DTI's (d) Major PV Demonstration Programme are to raise awareness of PV in the UK, generate investment in the PV industry, assure quality installations of PV, generate growth and competition, reduce product/install costs over time, establish a sustainable PV market in the UK, as well as making a contribution to carbon savings in the UK. The programme target is 1,000 domestic/individual
 
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systems and at least 140 medium and large-scale non-domestic systems by end of the programme. To date the programme has committed some £14.2 million to large-scale projects (134) and some £4.7 million (700) to small-scale projects. It is planned to evaluate the programme in its third year.

The (e) Scottish Communities and Householder Renewables Initiative is the responsibility of the Scottish Executive.

Combined Heat and Power

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the projection is for good quality combined heat and power capacity in each year from 2005 to 2009. [193827]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The latest projections for CHP capacity were undertaken by Cambridge Econometrics and published in November 2003. These projections, based on policies in place at the time, were 6.4GW in 2005 and 8.1GW in 2010. The figures do not include the impact of the introduction of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme which could add 0.4GW to the 2010 figure, giving a projection of 8.5GW for that year. No estimates were made for the intervening years.

The report can be found at http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/environment/energy efficiency/chpreport.pdf


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