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Petrol Stations
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many petrol stations there were in (a) England and Wales, (b) Cumbria, (c) Westmorland and Lonsdale, (d) urban areas and (e) rural areas in each year since 1997. [88642]
Malcolm Wicks: The number of petrol station in England and Wales and in Cumbria is as follows:
| Year end | England and Wales | Cumbria |
The data was provided by Catalist Ltd. and was first collected in 1998. Data on numbers of rural and urban petrol stations, and Westmorland and Lonsdale, is not available.
Planning (Romney Marsh)
Mr. Howard: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will publish the correspondence between his Department and English Nature in respect of the application for permission for a wind farm at Little Cheyne Court, Romney Marsh. [87426]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 24 July 2006]: No. The correspondence between the Department and English Nature during the consideration of the application was placed on the planning register and is therefore already in the public domain.
Post Office
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what consultation was undertaken with (a) Postwatch and (b) Postwatch East prior to the recent decision of his Department not to renew the Post Office Card Account contract. [45463]
Mr. Plaskitt: I have been asked to reply.
DWP officials have met Postwatch a number of times in the past to discuss the direct payment of benefits and pensions. Government funding for the Post Office card account will continue until March 2010 as always planned. This was provided for in the Post Office card account contract agreed by DWP and Post Office Limited in March 2002. An abridged version of the contract has been placed in the Library. The details of the contract were not discussed with Postwatch.
My officials met with officials from the national Postwatch organisation on 27 January 2006 and had a constructive discussion about our future strategy for paying benefits and pensions, including our small-scale pilots. A summary report of the pilot findings has now been placed in the Library. My officials have been in regular contact with Postwatch since that meeting, including attending meetings at Postwatch's Counters Advisory Group.
Postal Services
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations he has received regarding the awarding of Post Office franchises to WH Smith stores; and what discussions he has had with the Post Office on this matter. [88677]
Jim Fitzpatrick: We have received representations from the hon. Member for Swansea, East (Mrs. James).
I have also had a discussion with Alan Cook, Managing Director of Post Office Ltd., on this in an initial meeting held on 22 June, following the decision.
Decision on individuals Post Offices branches are operational matters for which the management of Post Office Ltd. (POL) have direct responsibility.
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) which companies bid for the Post Office franchises in addition to WH Smith; [88678]
(2) whether franchises for postal services awarded to WH Smith include a requirement for re-investment in postal services by that company. [88679]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Decisions on individual Post Office branches are operational matters for which the management of Post Office Ltd. (POL) have direct responsibility. I have, therefore, asked Alan Cook, Managing Director of POL, to reply direct to the hon. Member on the issues he has raised concerning the franchising of services.
Public Payphones
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many public payphones have been removed in (a) rural and (b) non-rural areas in each year since 1997; what steps the Government have taken to improve access to public payphones in rural areas; and if he will make a statement. [86076]
Margaret Hodge: The matter raised is the responsibility of the Regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) which is accountable to Parliament rather than Ministers. Accordingly, I have asked the Chief Executive of Ofcom to reply directly to the hon. Member. Copies of the Chief Executive’s letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Renewable Energy
Lynne
Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for
Trade and Industry what publicly (a) funded and (b)
administered support schemes for renewable energy research, development
and generation have been
available since 1995; and how much was allocated to each programme in
each year.
[85233]
Malcolm Wicks: It has not been possible to collate all public expenditure and other Government support since 1995 for energy technologies in the time available at proportionate cost.
Aside from the Renewables Obligation, which is the Governments main mechanism for delivering renewables generation, the Government are investing around £500 million, between 2002 and 2008, in capital grants and research and development to support Low Carbon Technologies. Money that has already been allocated includes £50 million for the Marine Renewables Deployment Fund, £60 million for bio-energy, £41 million (this includes £10 million for PV Field Trials) for photovoltaics, £12.5 million for community renewables and £117 million for offshore wind.
The Chancellor
also recently announced in the Budget a further £50 million, on
top of the £30 million
that the Minister for Energy had previously announced, for the Low
Carbon Building Programme, which encourages micro generation and energy
efficiency in
buildings.
In addition to this both DEFRA and the Scottish Executive provide funding to the Carbon Trust which conducts research into low carbon energy activities among other activities. DEFRA also funds research into combined heat and power, which is also detailed in the following tables.
The Government's support for clean, low carbon road vehicle and fuel technologies, including support for research, development and demonstration projects, was summarised in the 2002 Powering Future Vehicles Strategy, a copy of which is available via the Department for Transport's website at:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_roads/documents/page/dft_roads_506885.hcsp
The following tables show the Governments direct spend per technology for 1995 to 2005.
| DTI New and Renewable Energy Programme—External Spend for each technology area by financial year from 1990-91 | ||||||
| Spend (rounded to nearest thousand) | ||||||
| Programme Area | 1994-95 | 1995-96 | 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 |
| Programme Area | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 |
| (1)
A combined spend for the two
areas. | |||||
| DTI Capital Grant Programmes | |||
| 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | |
| Research Councils Energy R&D Expenditure | ||||||||
| £000 | ||||||||
| 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | |
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