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27 Oct 2008 : Column 730W—continued
Sports: Finance
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much (a) Exchequer and (b) Lottery money was given to the street athletics initiative in each year since its inception. [230850]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Sport England have advised that they funded two street athletics projects in the London region in 2007 and one regional project in 2008. All three were Lottery funded awards with a total value of £551,000.
| Region | Recipient | Project t itle | Award Date | Financial y ear | Award (£) | Project c ost (£) | Programme n ame |
Energy and Climate Change
Coal
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many people were employed in the UK coal industry in each of the last five years. [227167]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: As reported to the Coal Authority in its role as licensing authority, employment in the coal industry at the close of each of the last five years was as follows:
| Number | |
Coal: Prices
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent estimate he has made of likely trends in the price of coal for domestic heating use in the next three years. [228125]
Mr. Mike O'Brien [holding answer 17 October 2008]: The Government have made no assessment of the price of coal for domestic heating use in the next three years. Coal is an internationally traded commodity and prices are set in international markets. Changes in globally traded coal prices will tend to feed into coal prices for domestic use.
Community Energy Saving Programme
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the timetable is for the introduction of the Community Energy Saving Programme. [226972]
Joan Ruddock: We will be taking measures under the Climate Change Bill to provide the legislative framework for the Community Energy Saving Programme. Royal Assent to the Climate Change Bill is expected during the current parliamentary session. We will then consult on the detailed provisions of the programme and bring forward the relevant secondary legislation.
Electricity Generation
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what percentage of UK electricity was generated from (a) coal, (b) nuclear power, (c) renewable sources and (d) gas in each of the last five years. [227169]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The percentage shares of UK electricity generation by coal, nuclear, renewables and gas, from 2003 to 2007 are given in the following table:
| Total electricity generation in the UK | Coal-fired electricity generation in the UK | Nuclear electricity generation in the UK | Renewables sourced electricity generation in the UK | Gas-fired electricity generation in the UK | |||||
| GWh | GWh | Percentage share of total | GWh | Percentage share of total | GWh | Percentage share of total | GWh | Percentage share of total | |
| Source: Digest of UK Energy Statistics, 2008, Tables 5.6 and 7.4. | |||||||||
Energy: Metering
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how long he expects the work evaluation of smart meters to take; who is conducting the evaluation; and when he expects to take the next steps towards wider installation of smart meters. [226943]
Mr. Mike O'Brien
[holding answer 14 October 2008]: The Government published a response to their 2007
consultation on energy billing and metering in April this year. At that stage, the economic impact assessment did not indicate a positive case for a roll-out of smart metering to all domestic customers. However, in a project of this scale the figures carry a high degree of uncertainty and many of the benefits are difficult to quantify in monetary terms. Officials have therefore been undertaking further work with stakeholders, including contracting some independent consultancy work, to ensure that the Government have the best possible understanding of costs, benefits and issues relating to smart metering. The intention is for Ministers to take a decision soon on whether to roll-out smart meters to domestic customers.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what progress his Department has made in requiring electricity and gas suppliers to provide advanced meters to electricity customers in Profile 5-8 and gas customers with annual consumption above 732MWh by 2013; and if he will make a statement. [225365]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: In July 2008, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform consulted on final proposals to ensure that these customers would be provided with advanced metering by 31 December 2013. This consultation closed on 5 September. My Department will shortly issue its response to this consultation, with a final licence modification, with a view to having the new arrangements in place in January 2009, subject to the passage of the Energy Bill.
Energy: Prices
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what additional monitoring the Government is undertaking of the effects on (a) payment method preference, (b) levels of debt and (c) levels of disconnections of domestic energy consumers of (i) recent and (ii) anticipated increases in energy prices; and how much the Government has allocated to provide domestic energy customers with energy efficiency advice and information. [225279]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Government publish price data in their Quarterly Energy Prices publication. This publication includes price data sourced from the RPI produced by the Office for National Statistics and bills information from the new Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). This information can be found online at:
Data of historical trends can be found at:
No information is published on anticipated changes in energy prices.
The industry regulator, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) is responsible for monitoring and providing information about levels of use of particular payment methods, customer debt and disconnections. This information will reflect, among other things, the impact of price increases. Ofgem publishes this information quarterly. The report for the first quarter of 2008 is available online at:
http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Pages/MoreInformation. aspx?docid=47&refer=Sustainability/SocAction/Monitoring/SoObMonitor
An annual report is also published, available online at:
http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Sustainability/SocAction/Monitoring/SoObMonitor/Documents1/Suppliers%20Social%20Obligations%20Monitoring %20Report%202007%2011208.pdf
DECC has provided grant funding to the Energy Saving Trust year-on-year, supporting the work it undertakes to encourage and promote the sustainable and efficient use of energy. DEFRA has provided the Energy Saving Trust with £35.2 million for 2008-09 which includes funding for the Act on CO2 advice line and the roll-out of their regional advice centres.
Fuel Poverty
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what criteria underpin his Department’s definition of fuel poverty; what public surveys his Department and its predecessor have conducted of the extent and impact of fuel poverty; which 10 parliamentary constituencies contain the highest number of fuel poor; and what plans he has to increase public access to resources to combat fuel poverty. [226252]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: A household is said to be in fuel poverty if it needs to spend more than 10 per cent. of its income on fuel to maintain an adequate level of warmth (usually defined as 21 degrees for the main living area, and 18 degrees for other occupied rooms). This broad definition of fuel costs also includes modelled spending on water heating, lights, appliances and cooking.
The survey that provides the source data for modelling fuel poverty is the English Housing Survey (known as the English House Conditions Survey to 2008), conducted by Communities and Local Government (CLG). The survey data is modelled and combined with prices to produce energy costs and incomes, the main variables of the fuel poverty ratio.
Annual progress reports on the Fuel Poverty Strategy, the 2008 version of which was recently published:
gives more information on progress tackling, and the impact of, fuel poverty.
Fuel poverty is not calculated at a parliamentary constituency level.
The Government already have a range of measures in place to help tackle fuel poverty, and on 11 September the Prime Minister announced an ambitious new £1 billion National Home Energy Saving Programme to help domestic consumers cut their energy bills permanently. Within this, we are expanding the existing obligation on energy suppliers to install energy efficiency measures in households. This will mean a further £560 million energy supplier investment in British housing, to save energy and to reduce bills to households. 40 per cent. of these measures have to be installed in a priority group of low income and elderly households.
In addition the Government will consult on legislation for a new £350 million obligation on energy suppliers and electricity generators to undertake community-based energy efficiency measures. Other measures in the package include a £74 million increase to the budget for Warm
Front (the Government scheme in England, offering insulation, heating and energy efficiency measures to low income and pensioner households on eligible benefits); and an increase in cold weather payments this winter from £8.50 to £25 a week. To make sure people across the country can take advantage of the help on offer and save as much money as possible, a national TV, press and online social marketing campaign is publicising what help is available.
Home Energy Efficiency Scheme
Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many individual contractors have been appointed to carry out work under the Warm Front scheme. [228395]
Joan Ruddock: There are currently 139 companies registered to carry out work for the Warm Front scheme.
Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessments are carried out before appointing contractors to carry out work under the Warm Front scheme. [228396]
Joan Ruddock: Eaga plc, the main contractor for the Warm Front Scheme, manages the appointment of all contractors to the scheme and complies with EU procurement regulations for all contracted works. The regulations require that offers to tender are placed in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).
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