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Fuel Bills
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the (a) mean and (b) median household (i) gas and (ii) electricity bill was in the last period for which figures are available; and if he will estimate the bill paid at each decile of income distribution in each case. [84736]
Malcolm Wicks: The Expenditure and Food Survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics showed that in 2004-05 the mean amount spent on gas was £287 per annum, while the mean amount spent on electricity was £313.
The median spend on gas was £271, while the median spend on electricity during 2004-05 was £276.
The amount of spend for the top of each decile in the distribution is shown for both gas and electricity in the table:
| £ | ||
| Annual spend on fuel according to position in spend decile (2004-05) | ||
| Decile (top of): | Gas | Electricity |
| Source:
Office for National
Statistics | ||
Those in the lowest deciles of gas spend will pay nothing for their fuel due to a lack of connection to the gas network.
The amount spent on gas and electricity by each decile in the income distribution is as follows:
| £ | ||
| Annual spend on fuel per income decile( 1) | ||
| Income decile | Gas | Electricity |
| (1) Source: Family Spending: A Report on the 2004-05
Expenditure and Food Survey (ONS:
2005) | ||
Fuel Poverty
Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps his Department is taking to eliminate fuel poverty in vulnerable households in England by 2010. [85461]
Malcolm Wicks: Responsibility for tackling fuel poverty in England is shared between the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Following the Energy Review, we will be taking forward work with energy suppliers and other key players to examine how the continuing challenge of fuel poverty can be best addressed. The Energy Review also commits us to looking hard at how we can maximise the contribution made by our existing schemes. The Department of Trade and Industry will play an important role in this analysis.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs leads on the Warm Front scheme in England. The Warm Front scheme has resulted in improvements to the energy efficiency of the housing of those on a range of qualifying benefits and has provided assistance to over a million vulnerable households since 2000.
The Department of Trade and Industry itself has a number of policies to tackle the issue of fuel poverty. It has liaised closely with energy suppliers on the development of the Home Heat Helpline, which provides vulnerable customers and their representatives with a central point of information relating to the help available from their energy supplier and Government. It has encouraged the introduction of social tariffs and price freezes for fuel poor and low income customers.
The Department's Design and Demonstration Unit is a team of private sector secondees that works in support of Energy White Paper objectives. As part of the Unit's work, it has designed and delivered projects to provide gas connections to deprived communities, and it is now developing community projects utilising renewable technologies.
Fuel Prices
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what his estimate is of the difference in the average price of a litre of petrol in rural and non-rural areas in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [85880]
Malcolm Wicks: I am not aware of any data source that provides information on rural and non-rural petrol prices. There is anecdotal evidence that petrol prices in rural areas are likely to be higher than non-rural areas.
There are a variety of reasons why this is likely to be the case. These include:
Fuel throughput, in that the higher the throughput the lower the retail margin required to give a return on the investment. Rural garages are likely to have lower throughputs.
Bulk delivery charges, many sites have relatively small storage tanks since they are cheaper to install. However, they require more frequent replenishment and this results in some sites paying higher delivery charges. Again smaller tanks are likely to be more prevalent is smaller, rural petrol stations.
Competition; large, particularly supermarket sites in close proximity to one another in urban areas do tend to lead to lower prices.
Regional petrol prices are available on the AA website at http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/fuel/index.html.
Home Computing Initiative
Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what discussions he has had with representatives of the home computing industry about the consequences of the abolition of the Home Computing Initiative. [63837]
Mr. Darling: I would like to apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in replying to the matter raised. In response to his query I can confirm that the DTI has regular discussions with the industry on all matters of concern relevant to their sector.
Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on what date the Home Computing Initiative was made available to staff in his Department; and how many staff had (a) applied for and (b) expressed interest in the scheme before the Budget. [63838]
Mr. Darling: The Home Computing Initiative was made available to staff in DTI and Insolvency Service (an executive agency of DTI that is participating in the DTI scheme) on 15 March 2006 as part of a wider scheme incorporating computers, childcare and bikes.
Over 400 staff in DTI expressed an interest in the scheme when it was initially contemplated in mid-2005.
Sixty-four people had registered for computers in the period 15 to 22 March (Budget day) and approximately 240 had registered by the computer closing date of 30 March. These figures include staff from DTI and Insolvency Service.
Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will place in the Library the communications from his officials to HM Treasury on the home computing initiatives relating to the abolition of the tax exemption in the Budget. [66512]
Mr. Darling: I would like to apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in replying to the matter raised. In response to his query I can confirm that the DTI have regular discussion with the Treasury on budgetary initiatives.
Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the cost was of setting up his Department's Home Computing Initiative scheme, including consultancy and administrative costs. [66513]
Mr. Darling: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for South-West Hertfordshire (Mr. Gauke) on 20 April 2006, Official Report, column 762W.
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he was first informed by the Treasury of the withdrawal of the tax exemption for loaned computer equipment under the Home Computing Initiative Scheme. [64166]
Mr. Darling: [holding answer 18 April 2006]: I would like to apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in replying to the matter raised. In response to her query the DTI have regular discussions with the Treasury on budgetary issues.
Home Working
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many people in his Department have been enabled to work from home in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [67998]
Jim Fitzpatrick: All members of staff with an appropriate job are allowed to work from home subject to their line manager's approval. Laptop's have been provided to staff that allow access to the Departments IT Systems. Many of these were configured to allow staff to share them.
1,400 Laptops were in use for secure remote access. The shared facility enabled up to 2,200 staff to use these machines if approved to do so.
1,550 Laptops were in use for secure remote access. The shared facility enabled 2,550 staff to use these machines if approved to do so.
1,550 Laptops were in use at the start of the year but this reduced to 1,200 by end-March 2006, as a consequence of the efficiency programme and reduction in staff numbers. A corresponding reduction in shared usage was applicable.
Miners' Compensation
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry which mining contractors have signed the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease claims handling agreement with his Department. [85431]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 14 July 2006]: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 12 May 2006, Official Report, columns 576-77W.
Ministerial Visits
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on how many occasions he has visited each region in an official capacity in the last 12 months. [84009]
Margaret Hodge: The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has visited the North West twice and the North East, South East and East Midlands once.
Nuclear Energy
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to paragraph 5.134 of the Energy Review, Cm 6887, whether the Environment Agency will be able to recover (a) in full and (b) in part from any company putting forward proposals to build new nuclear plants the costs of the pre-licensing work. [86082]
Malcolm Wicks: Paragraph 5.9 of the Environment Agency submission to the Energy Review stated that:
“We will need to recover the costs associated with pre-authorisation/licensing assessments. There are legal provisions in the EA 95 to enable our costs to be recovered.”
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether it is his policy to replace those nuclear stations that he identifies in the Energy Review as coming to the end of their operational lives. [86114]
Malcolm Wicks: Any new power stations would be proposed, developed, constructed and operated by the private sector. It is for the private sector to make judgements on the future relative costs of different generating technologies, within the market framework established by Government. Developers will make their proposals for new generating capacity based on these judgments.
Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate his Department has made of the level of government subsidies likely to be required to stimulate the commissioning of new nuclear generating stations by energy companies. [85568]
Malcolm Wicks: It will be for the private sector to initiate, fund, construct and operate any new nuclear power station, and also meet full decommissioning costs and their full share of long term waste management costs.
Nuclear Materials (Transportation)
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether vessels transporting nuclear material are escorted by the Royal Navy. [84866]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 13 July 2006]: All shipments of civil nuclear material on a UK flagged vessel are carried out in accordance with the Nuclear Industries Security Regulations (NISR) 2003 which are administered and enforced by the Government's independent security regulator, the Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS). Before any shipment can commence, OCNS must be satisfied that the overall security measures are adequately robust to prevent the theft or sabotage of the material being transported.
British
flagged transport vessels carrying nuclear material are not routinely
escorted by the Royal Navy, but, where appropriate, prior coordination
with the Royal Navy will be an important factor in the assessment of a
Transport Security Plan. The ships will carry an escort unit of the
Civil Nuclear
Constabulary's (CNC) Marine Escort Group, which provides armed security
for nuclear materials in transit. The Marine Escort Group has been
specially trained to a high standard by the Royal
Navy.
Offshore Transmission Regime
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to paragraph 5.57 of the Energy Review, what the scope is of the work being conducted on developing an offshore transmission regime; and if he will make a statement. [85723]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 17 July 2006]: Following my announcement on 30 March 2006 that the Government had decided to extend the regulated price control model to offshore transmission, DTI and Ofgem are working with industry to develop that new regime.
Ofgem issued a scoping document setting out the main issues that need to be considered on 3 April 2006. The document can be found at:
http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/temp/ofgem/cache/cmsattach/14533_6006.pdf
Further information about the project to deliver the new regime including project structure, governance and timetable can be found at:
http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/sources/renewables/policy/offshore-transmission/page28604.html
http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/sources/renewables/policy/offshore-transmission/offshore-transmission-experts-group/page28711.html
Post Office Closures
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the closure of the Shrewsbury post office. [85484]
Jim Fitzpatrick: I understand that the directly managed office in Shrewsbury is to be relocated to premises 50 yards away under a franchising agreement and customers will benefit from extended opening hours and have access to the same full range of services. Decisions on individual offices are an operational matter for Post Office Ltd. The 500 directly managed post offices made combined annual losses of some £50 million in 2005-06 and Post Office Ltd are seeking more cost-effective ways of providing main post office services to the public.
Recruitment
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies spent on recruitment, search and selection agencies in each of the last five years. [68337]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Expenditure on recruitment for the past three financial years has been extracted from the Department’s finance system. Information for the other years requested is not readily available on a consistent basis and would be available only at disproportionate cost.
The following table shows the breakdown on recruitment, search and selection agencies by DTI and its agencies.
| Financial year | Expenditure on recruitment, search and selection agencies (£000) |
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