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2 Jun 2008 : Column 784W—continued
Community buildings/ day centres
Emergency services
Further education—universities, colleges and academies
Hospitals
Libraries/museums/galleries
Offices
Primary health care buildings
Primary schools
Prisons
Religious buildings
Residential/housing developments
Secondary schools
Social clubs
Sports centres/leisure centres
Theatres/cinemas/music halls and auditoria
Warehouses and storage
Workshops/maintenance depots
Other
Low carbon buildings programme phase 2
Local groups with constitutions
Local authorities
School
University
Housing association/trust
Others (ALMO's—arms length management organisations)
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what proportion of funding from the Low Carbon Buildings Programme has been spent on (a) public buildings, (b) charity-owned buildings and (c) private homes since the programme was launched. [202964]
Malcolm Wicks: The proportion of funding from the Low Carbon Buildings Programme which has been spent on public buildings, charity owned buildings and private homes is as follows:
| LCBP phase 1 | |||
| Number of grants paid | Value of grants (£) | Percentage of LCBP phase 1 | |
| LCBP phase 2 | |||
| Number of grants paid | Value of grants (£) | Percentage of LCBP phase 2 | |
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what proportion of available grant funding under the Low Carbon Buildings Programme has been spent on solar photovoltaic power generation and wind turbines. [202974]
Malcolm Wicks: From a total budget of £86 million available under the Low Carbon Buildings Programme we have spent £10,149,701 to date of which £6,225,108.98 has been spent on solar photovoltaic power generation and £1,326,393.91 on wind turbines.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many private householders applied for grants under the Low Carbon Buildings Programme in each year since 2006. [202995]
Malcolm Wicks: The total number of householders who have applied for grants under the Low Carbon Buildings Programme to date is 8,954. The breakdown by year is shown as follows:
| Number of householder applications received | |
Although demand to the programme has fallen, the changes made at the re-launch in May 2007 have helped ensure that we are seeing a better quality of application to the programme that is more likely to complete.
We recently announced that the household stream has been extended to June 2010 for new applications or as long as funds are available. We believe this extension combined with changes to planning requirements will provide an excellent opportunity to encourage uptake in the grants going forward.
Further details are available at:
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he expects all funds available from the Low Carbon Buildings Programme to be taken up; and what he anticipates will be the likely replacement of the programme once all funds available from it have been taken up. [203104]
Malcolm Wicks: We have currently committed £30 million to 6,300 projects under the Low Carbon Buildings Programme. Going forward it is difficult to predict with certainty exactly when all funds will be taken up. We are continuing to promote the programme working closely with the programme managers and other stakeholders to increase take up.
We recently announced that the household stream of the programme has been extended to June 2010 for new applications or as long as funds are available, whichever is sooner. We believe the extension gives business longer term certainty and is an excellent opportunity to encourage uptake in microgeneration technologies along with changes in planning requirements, which came into effect on 6 April.
Ministerial Correspondence
Mr. Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to the holding Answer given to Question 193546, tabled on 7 March 2008, on ministerial correspondence, when he will provide a substantive reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Walsall North of 29 January. [197741]
Mr. Thomas [holding answer 31 March 2008]: I apologise to my hon. Friend for the delay in responding, this was due to an administrative error. A response was sent to him on 31 March 2008.
Mobile Phones
Derek Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what discussions he has had with each of the five largest mobile operators on mobile termination rates in the last six months. [205818]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 15 May 2008]: My colleagues and I meet regularly with representatives of the five largest mobile operators. The companies raise a range of current issues with us, including mobile termination rates. Ofcom's proposals for mobile termination rates following its consultation last year are currently subject to appeal in front of the Competition Appeal Tribunal. In view of that situation, we are not actively discussing the issue with any of the companies at this time.
Derek Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what representations he has received from the five largest mobile operators on the introduction of two-hour number porting since January 2007. [205819]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 15 May 2008]: All the mobile phone network operators meet with my officials on a regular basis to discuss all types of mobile phone-related issues. I am aware that some operators are not comfortable with the arrangements concerning mobile number portability, but these matters are commercially sensitive and we are not able to comment on company specific policy. We understand that these matters are the subject of continuing discussions between Ofcom and the operators.
Money Lenders
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform if he will put in place mechanisms to protect people with mental health problems from the activities of doorstep lenders and private finance companies. [205267]
Mr. Thomas: The Government have no plans to introduce specific protections in this area. However, recent reforms have strengthened protections for vulnerable consumers.
From April 2008, reforms to the consumer credit licensing regime introduced by the Consumer Credit Act 2007 have given the OFT stronger powers to investigate and take action against rogue traders who lend irresponsibly. OFT will take a risk-based approach to enforcement, focusing its activities on those sectors where the risk of consumer detriment is highest. It has indicated that the home credit sector will be among those most carefully monitored. OFT will bring forward guidance this year for lenders about activities which may constitute irresponsible lending.
Furthermore, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, which come into force on 26 May, provide additional protection for vulnerable consumers. Under these regulations, a commercial practice, such as aggressive or misleading sales techniques, may be found unlawful where it is likely to adversely affect only a clearly identifiable group of
vulnerable consumers in a way which a trader can reasonably foresee, by virtue of mental or physical infirmity, age or credulity.
The consumer credit directive, which will be transposed into UK law by 2010, will provide further consumer protections through the introduction of a general right of withdrawal from credit agreements within scope, giving consumers a 14 day cooling-off period after signing their agreement. The Government will also bring forward regulations extending cancellation rights to contracts for goods and services purchased on the doorstep following a solicited visit by a trader. Consultation on draft regulations closed last month.
The Government would expect all lenders to observe the Money Advice Liaison Group's best practice guidelines on debt management in relation to people with mental health problems.
Natural Gas: Prices
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what information he holds on the average cost of gas to (a) domestic and (b) commercial consumers in other EU member states for the purposes of benchmarking. [206040]
Malcolm Wicks: BERR calculates and publishes UK price information on a time series basis. These data are then presented alongside data for EU and other G7 economies.
Domestic retail prices for gas for countries in the EU are published quarterly in section 5 of ‘Quarterly Energy Prices’, the latest edition of which was published in March 2008 and is available online at
Table 5.10.2 on page 70 shows average gas prices, including taxes, for the EU25 member states.
Table 5.8.2 on page 67 shows average gas prices, including taxes, for non-domestic consumers. The Department does not hold any data on gas prices to commercial consumers.
Nuclear Installations Inspectorate: Finance
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what costs have been recovered by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) for work carried out on prospective reactor designs as part of the general design assessment (GDA) programme from (a) Westinghouse, (b) GE Hitachi, (c) EDF/Areva and (d) Atomic Energy Canada; and what estimate he has made of further costs to be recovered by the NII under the GDA programme. [206561]
Malcolm Wicks: The following table sets out the amounts that have been recovered by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) from the companies mentioned above, and amounts that are due to the NII for work carried out to date on the Generic Design Assessment process.
| GDA cost recovery 2007-08 | |||
| £ | |||
| Requesting party | Paid | Due | Total |
The NII have estimated that the costs they will recover for the rest of the Generic Design Assessment process will be in the region of £13 million per design, although this estimate will be dependent on a number of factors, including the level of advancement of the companies' submissions and the costs of using technical support organisations.
Nuclear Power Stations: Costs
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to the answer of 13 May 2008, Official Report, column 1464W, on nuclear power, if he will disaggregate the 10 per cent. discount rate into its component parts in accordance with Green Book methodology. [207667]
Malcolm Wicks: The 10 per cent. discount rate used to appraise nuclear power against other generation options is based on an assessment of the cost of capital faced by private sector electricity generators. It is used to produce estimates of generation costs for fossil fuel and low carbon generation options so that their costs can be compared against each other. The Treasury Green Book discount rate is then used to discount the cost differences between options over time in order to estimate the cost or benefit to the economy of one generation option over another.
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to the answer of 13 May 2008, Official Report, column 1464W, on nuclear power, what the titles are of the studies on which the choice of a 10 per cent. discount rate was based. [207668]
Malcolm Wicks: A summary of the analysis of the costs of different electricity generation options is contained at annex B of the 2006 Energy Review. This is available at
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