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Waterways Museums

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on the public funding of the waterways museums at (a) Gloucester Docks, (b) Stoke Bruerne and (c) Ellesmere Port. [209275]

Estelle Morris: From 1999 to 2004 these museums received over £300,000 from the Designated Challenge Fund, run by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council on behalf of the Department. Central Government have only ever directly sponsored and funded a few institutions—mostly the major, long-established national museums set up by statute. Our remaining resources are committed to the Renaissance in the Regions programme, a major initiative that provides significant development funding for regional museums across England.
 
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PRIME MINISTER

Constitutional Treaty

John Cryer: To ask the Prime Minister (1) what guidance he has issued to civil servants regarding providing public information on the constitutional treaty for the European Union; [208540]

(2) what guidance he plans to issue to the civil service on its role prior to and during the referendum on the constitutional treaty for the European Union; [208541]

(3) what guidance he plans to issue to special advisers on their role prior to and during the proposed referendum on the constitutional treaty for the European Union; [208542]

(4) what discussions he has had with the Cabinet Secretary regarding the role of the civil service prior to and during the referendum on the constitutional treaty for the European Union. [208543]

The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office (Mr. Miliband) today.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Committee

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the future of the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Committee. [209570]

Mr. Morley: The report on the Organisational and Performance Review of the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission was published on 2 December. Defra and the other funding departments are considering the recommendations in the report and aim to reach a decision shortly.

AEBC members considered the review at their last meeting on 9 December. They agreed with the review's main recommendation: that the AEBC should be wound up. At the meeting Malcolm Grant said that he would put a note to the Government summarising Commission members' views on the review and the way forward. We look forward to receiving this shortly and indeed any views that individual members would wish to put to us.

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has for the future of the Agriculture, Environment and Biotechnology Committee. [208805]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 17 January 2005]: The report on the Organisational and Performance Review of the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission was published on 2 December. Defra and the other funding departments are considering the recommendations in the report and aim to reach a decision shortly.

AEBC members considered the review at their last meeting on 9 December. They agreed with the review's main recommendation: that the AEBC should be
 
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wound up. At the meeting Malcolm Grant said that he would put a note to the Government summarising Commission members' views on the review and the way forward. We look forward to receiving this shortly and indeed any views that individual members would wish to put to us.

Carbon Emissions

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the level of UK carbon emissions resulting from electrical appliances being left in standby mode in the last year for which figures are available. [208190]

Mr. Morley: The Government's Market Transformation Programme estimates that consumer electronics, home computing equipment, domestic cooking equipment and office equipment left in stand-by mode produced approximately 650,000 tonnes of carbon (c6.7TWh) in the UK in 2003.

We are also aware that there is further energy consumption, for which we do not have firm estimates at present, from washing machines and dishwashers which are switched on awaiting use or after they have completed their wash cycles; consumer electronic equipment using external power supplies (e.g. domestic portable telephones) that continue to consume energy when plugged in but not in use; and domestic personal computer equipment where the stand-by facilities are not properly enabled. Taken together, these sources of consumption may bring the overall figure to around one million tonnes of carbon.

In order to try to tackle this problem the Market Transformation Programme (www.mtprog.com) has been encouraging manufacturers to reduce both the "on" and the stand-by power consumption of household appliances through the adoption of design improvements, voluntary codes of conduct, and best practice guidelines and targets. This approach has been fairly successful in respect of televisions: an EU-wide voluntary agreement will mean that the majority of new televisions sold in the UK now consume around 1 watt of power in stand-by mode rather than the 3–8 watts consumed by older models. Discussions are now under way to extend this agreement to cover other consumer electronics.

A similar agreement for external power supplies aims to encourage new power supplies consuming around half a watt in stand-by mode compared to the present average of just over 2 watts.

In addition, the Government's initiative on sustainable procurement, announced last autumn, includes a requirement for Government Departments which purchase computers and televisions to specify low stand-by power requirements.

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the national carbon dioxide reduction goal for 2020 referred to in the final paragraph of page 3 of the review of the climate change consultation paper is. [208195]

 
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Mr. Morley: As we set out in the 2003 Energy White Paper, one of the four goals of our energy policy is to put ourselves on a path to cut the UK's carbon dioxide emissions by some 60 per cent. by about 2050, as recommended by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, with real progress by 2020.

We estimated then that, on the basis of our current policies, including the full impact of the Climate Change Programme, our carbon dioxide emissions might amount to some 135 MtC in 2020. The Energy White Paper said that, to be consistent with demonstrating leadership in the international process, we will aim for cuts in carbon dioxide emissions of 15–25 MtC below that by 2020, which would put us on a course to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by some 60 per cent. by about 2050.

Climate Impacts Programmes

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the projections arrived at by the UK Climate Impacts Programmes. [208332]

Mr. Morley: In 2002, the Department published new Climate Change Scenarios in support of the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP). The scenarios were prepared by the Tyndall and Hadley Centres under contract to the Department and used the Hadley Centre's high resolution regional climate change model. They represented a significant step forward in providing a basis for assessing the potential impacts of climate change in different parts of the UK during this century.

The scenarios indicate that it is likely that:

UK annual average temperatures will rise by between 2 and 3.5 degrees Celsius by the 2080s;

High summer temperatures will become more frequent and very cold winters will become increasingly rare;

Winters will become wetter and summers may become drier everywhere;

Snowfall amounts will decrease throughout the UK;

Heavy winter precipitation will become more frequent;

Relative sea level will continue to rise around most of the UK's shoreline, with the South East expected to see the largest increases of between 26 and 86 centimetres by the 2080s;

Extreme sea levels will be experienced more frequently.

These projections are based on four alternative scenarios of future global emissions of greenhouse gases and as such capture some of the uncertainty that surrounds our ability to predict future climate. However it is recognised that projections of climate change, especially at the regional level, are also subject to modelling uncertainties which are the focus of current research. Nevertheless the UKCIP scenarios provide a scientifically robust indication of the general trends in climate that are expected and a useful basis for assessing the potential risks and opportunities of climate change.

Further information is available in the full report in the Libraries of both Houses. The reports can also be found at www.ukcip.org.uk.

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