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19 Feb 2008 : Column 651W—continued
Fossil Fuel Levy: Scotland
Mr. Ingram: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much Ofgem (a) collected and (b) transferred to the Scottish Consolidated Fund in respect of the Scottish fossil fuel levy in each of the last three years. [185495]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 7 February 2008]: The balances of the Scottish levy account for the last three financial years are as follows:
As at 31 March 2005: £9.3 million
2005-06 (as at 31 March 2006): £18.05 million
2006-07 (as at 31 March 2007): £59.27 million
2007-08 (as at 31 March 2008): £98.21 million
These figures include accumulated interest on the account.
No transfers have been made by Ofgem to the Scottish Consolidated Fund in respect of the Scottish fossil fuel levy as no direction enabling such a transfer has been made by Scottish Ministers under section 187 of the Energy Act 2004.
Fuel Poverty
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what estimate his Department has made of (a) the total number of people, (b) the number of children and (c) the number of pensioners living in fuel poverty in each of the last 10 years, broken down by (i) region, (ii) local authority and (iii) constituency. [185893]
Malcolm Wicks: Fuel poverty numbers are calculated in terms of households rather than individuals. The most recent year for which numbers of households in fuel poverty are available is 2005. Detailed splits of fuel poverty for England in 2005, including by household composition and by region, are published in “Fuel poverty 2005: detailed tables”—available online at:
No split exists of fuel poverty by household composition and region (or lower geographical area), and to produce one historically would not be possible without disproportionate cost. The following table shows the total number of households, pensioner households and households with children living in fuel poverty in England in each year since 1996 for which figures have been compiled. Note that detailed splits identifying households with children and pensioners have only been produced since 2003.
| Estimated number of fuel poor households in England | |||||||
| Thousand | |||||||
| 1996 | 1998 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | |
| (1 )Not available. Note: Figures for 2006 will be published later this year. | |||||||
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many households in (a) private, (b) registered social landlord and (c) local authority housing were in fuel poverty in each of the last five years. [185899]
Malcolm Wicks: The most recent year for which numbers of households in fuel poverty are available is 2005. Splits of fuel poverty in England by type of tenure are published in "Fuel Poverty 2005: detailed tables"—available online at:
The following table shows the splits for number of fuel poor households in private, registered social landlord and local authority housing since 2001 in England.
| Estimated number of fuel poor households | |||||
| T housand | |||||
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | |
| n/a = Not available. Note: Sums may not match total due to rounding. No detailed splits of data were produced for 2002—due to the change in the English house conditions survey cycle, headline data only was modelled. | |||||
Figures for 2006 will be available later this year and those for 2007 will be published in 2009.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many (a) pensioner households and (b) households with children were living in fuel poverty in each English region in each of the last five years. [185900]
Malcolm Wicks: The most recent year for which numbers of households in fuel poverty are available is 2005. Various splits of the headline fuel poverty numbers for England are published in “Fuel Poverty 2005: detailed tables”—available online at:
including a split by household composition and another by region. No split exists of fuel poverty by household composition and region, and to produce one historically would not be possible without disproportionate cost.
The following table shows the number of pensioner households and households with children living in fuel poverty since 2003, the first year for which estimates for pensioners and children were made.
| Estimated number of fuel poor households | |||
| T housand | |||
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | |
Figures for 2006 will be available later this year.
Fuel Poverty: Disabled
Roger Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what estimate he has made of the number of disabled people under 60 years who are living in fuel poverty and receiving the middle or higher rate of the disability living allowance care component or the higher rate of the mobility component. [186427]
Malcolm Wicks: Fuel poverty numbers are calculated in terms of households rather than individuals. The most recent year for which numbers of households in fuel poverty are available is 2005. In 2005, there were around 1.5 million fuel poor households in England, of which around 98,000 contained a disabled person under 60.
The data used to model fuel poverty come from the English House Conditions Survey (EHCS). Benefits recorded in this survey are grouped, and so it is not possible to accurately identify different levels or types of income support.
Roger Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what estimate he has made of the number of disabled people under 60 who are living in fuel poverty. [186428]
Malcolm Wicks: Fuel poverty numbers are calculated in terms of households rather than individuals. The most recent year for which numbers of households in fuel poverty are available is 2005.
In 2005, there were around 1.5 million fuel poor households in England, of which around 98,000 contained a disabled person under 60.
Natural Gas: Distribution
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform if Ofgem will provide incentives to gas distribution network companies to provide mains gas connections in deprived communities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. [186464]
Malcolm Wicks: The 2008-13 Gas Distribution Price Control includes arrangements to incentivise the gas distribution network companies to provide connections to deprived communities.
Natural Gas: Imports
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much gas was imported into the UK from each gas exporting country in each of the last five years. [186376]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 18 February 2008]: In the last five years gas has been imported into the UK via pipeline from Norway, Belgium and, since 2006, the Netherlands. It is not possible to identify the countries of origin of the gas physically received from the Netherlands and Belgium. However, it is believed that the majority of the gas received from the Netherlands is sourced from the Dutch sector of the North Sea and the majority of the gas from Belgium is sourced from Norway via Zeepipe which terminates at Zeebrugge. In addition, since 2005 relatively small amounts of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has also been imported by tanker—from Algeria, Egypt, Qatar and Trinidad and Tobago. In the 11 months to November 2007 LNG accounted for 5 per cent. of total gas imports. Data on the proximate sources of gas (i.e. separating out Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and LNG) are available on BERR's website in Energy Trends Table 4.3—
Data for the whole of 2007 are due to be published on 28 February 2008.
Data for the whole of 2007 are not yet available. The following table gives data for 2003 to 2006 along with data for the 11 months to November 2007.
| (TWh) | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
| (1) Physical (as opposed to contractual) flows through the Bacton-Zeebrugge Interconnector. (2 )Via the Balgzand-Bacton Line (BBL). (3) Via the Langeled and Vesterled pipelines, and Tampen Link (from Statfjord to FLAGS). (4 )Liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Algeria, Egypt, Qatar and Trinidad and Tobago to the Isle of Grain and Gasport Teesside LNG terminals. | |||||
News Corporation: ITV
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what (a) communications and (b) meetings his Department has had with (i) BSkyB, (ii) News International and (iii) other news corporation controlled companies during the last four weeks (A) generally and (B) on BSkyB's shareholding in ITV. [179312]
Malcolm Wicks: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 21 January 2008, Official Report, column 1631W, to the hon. Member for Shipley (Philip Davies).
Nuclear Power Stations: Decommissioning
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what discussions he has had with the Chairman of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on engaging professional cost advisers to review cost estimates provided to the NDA by its site licencees. [184895]
Malcolm Wicks: My Department has regular discussions with the Chairman of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on a range of issues, including the measurement of the size of the task facing the NDA. The estimation of the lifetime costs of the NDA’s mission is a key task for the NDA, and it therefore has processes in place for testing and challenging the estimates, including using advisers where appropriate to help them evaluate both the process and to review the cost estimates provided to the NDA by its site licensees.
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what estimate he has made of the costs of decommissioning and decontaminating nuclear power stations over the next (a) 10 and (b) 20 years. [185788]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 18 February 2008]: Estimating the costs of decommissioning and cleaning up the historic civil public nuclear sites, including the Magnox nuclear power stations, is the responsibility of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The latest estimate is set out in the NDA’s annual report and accounts 2006-07, which is available on the NDA’s website at:
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