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23 Feb 2009 : Column 297W—continued
Departmental Responsibilities
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change when his Department will undertake a capability review. [255162]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: As a newly formed Department, the first action in the capability review process for DECC will be to undertake a baseline assessment. DECC will discuss when might be appropriate to conduct this baseline assessment with the Capability Reviews Team in Cabinet Office.
District Heating
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what work his Department has undertaken on heat markets and district heating; and what further work is planned. [255146]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Heat markets and district heating were both considered in the Heat Call for Evidence published in January 2008
127 organisations and individuals responded to the Call for Evidence. These responses have been analysed and have informed further policy development in this area. The Government are now consulting on their heat and energy saving strategy, which was published on 12 February and which contains further proposals on heat markets and district heating
Electricity Generation
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what research his Department has conducted into highly distributed power systems. [255159]
Mr. Mike O'Brien:
Research into distributed power systems has been carried out by the DECC funded Centre for Sustainable Electricity and Distributed
Generation and the Electricity Networks Strategy Group. Copies of final reports can be found on their respective websites:
Energy
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what work the (a) Energy Markets Unit, (b) Energy Development Unit, (c) Renewable Energy and Innovation Unit and (d) Cleaner Fossil Fuels Unit (i) has undertaken and (ii) plans to undertake. [255119]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: These teams—formerly as part of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and now in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)—contribute to delivering the Government’s policy goals of reliable supplies of energy, lower carbon emissions, competitive energy prices, fewer people in fuel poverty and effective management of the coal health and nuclear liabilities from the past.
The teams have been subject to some restructuring as part of the creation of DECC. The detail of their forward work plans is subject to the Department’s current business planning for future years and to the further development of DECC’s overarching strategy to address energy and climate change challenges.
Energy Strategy Unit
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what work the Energy Strategy and International (a) 1 and (b) 2 Unit has undertaken; and what further work is planned for each. [255120]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: These teams—formerly as part of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and now in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)—contribute to delivering the Government’s policy goals of reliable supplies of energy, lower carbon emissions and competitive energy prices.
The teams have been subject to some restructuring as part of the creation of DECC. The detail of their forward work plans is subject to the Department’s current business planning for future years and to the further development of DECC’s overarching strategy to address energy and climate change challenges.
Energy Supply
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent estimate he has made of the number of households in each (a) Government region, (b) local authority area and (c) Parliamentary constituency who have not switched their electricity supplier since taking up residence in their property in each of the last three years. [255981]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: DECC holds information on customer switching relating to the total number of households which have switched supplier in each PES (public electricity supplier) area since the electricity market was deregulated.
Data on the total number of domestic electricity consumers who have switched supplier are available in section 2 of “Quarterly Energy Prices”, the latest edition of which was published in December 2008 and is available online at
Table 2.4.1 on page 23 shows the percentage of consumers who have switched supplier in each region, split by payment method.
However, the Department holds no information on customer switching relating to the length of residence in a property, and information is not available by Government region, local authority area or parliamentary constituency.
Energy: Finance
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent assessment he has made of the availability of debt finance for investment in energy infrastructure projects. [255192]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Large energy companies continue to be able to access both bond and commercial paper markets for investment purposes, with several utilities launching successful debt issues in recent months. The cost of new debt in relation to the risk-free rate has risen relative to the pre-credit crunch situation, but the risk-free rate itself has fallen in recent months. The Government and Ofgem continue to monitor levels of energy investment closely.
Smaller energy firms have found debt financing harder to come by due to the financial crisis, in common with firms in other sectors of the economy. However, many of these firms will be eligible for the Government’s recently-announced schemes to restore the flow of credit to businesses (Working Capital Scheme, Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme).
Energy: Hydrogen
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what research his Department has conducted into new hydrogen storage materials. [255153]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: None. The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills is responsible for funding research through the UK Research Councils and the Technology Strategy Board.
Energy: Meters
Dr. Whitehead: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what progress his Department has made (1) in co-ordinating arrangements to oversee the roll-out of smart meters; [254806]
(2) in developing a model for the roll-out of smart meters; [254807]
(3) in determining a standard specification for smart meters. [254808]
Mr. Mike O'Brien:
The Government announced on 28 October last year that we will mandate the provision of smart meters to all households. We are currently considering a range of policy issues which need to be
developed further in preparation for the roll out of smart meters, including the delivery model, meter functionality and programme management. We will make further announcements on such matters when we are able to do so.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what his most recent estimate is of the number of smart meters installed in domestic properties. [255862]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Whilst definitions of “smart meters” vary, the Department's estimate is that less than one per cent. of meters installed in domestic properties could be described as “smart meters”.
Energy: Prices
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps his Department is taking to increase liquidity in wholesale gas and electricity markets. [255211]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Government aim to maintain and where necessary to improve regulatory conditions to ensure effective wholesale energy markets, in the UK and the EU, with sufficient liquidity to send effective price signals to market participants. We welcome Ofgem’s current work on wholesale market liquidity, and look forward to its findings.
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what his most recent estimate is of the effect of changes in domestic energy prices in the last 12 months on the number of people in fuel poverty. [255857]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The most recent fuel poverty estimates are available for 2006 in the Sixth Annual Progress report on the Fuel Poverty Strategy:
These show that in the UK, there were around 3.5 million households living in fuel poverty in 2006 and around 2.4 million in England. The statistical annex to this report gives indicative projections for fuel poverty in England. These show an estimated further 1.2 million households moving into fuel poverty between 2006 and 2008, largely due to fuel price increases. However, these estimates were based on information known at the time and therefore have clearly been overtaken by a more complex price increase and so should not be regarded as representing the Government’s view about what the current figures are.
Fuel Cells
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what research his Department has conducted into enzymatic fuel cells. [255155]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: None. The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills is responsible for funding research through the UK Research Councils and the Technology Strategy Board.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what research his Department has conducted into microbial fuel cells. [255156]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: None. The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills is responsible for funding research through the UK Research Councils and the Technology Strategy Board.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what research his Department has conducted into fuel cell integrity. [255158]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: None. The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills is responsible for funding research through the UK Research Councils and the Technology Strategy Board.
Fuel Poverty
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what his most recent assessment is of the number of people in fuel poverty in (a) St Albans constituency, (b) Hertfordshire and (c) England and Wales. [254223]
Joan Ruddock: The most recently available sub-regional split of fuel poverty relates to 2003, and shows that there were around 1,900 fuel-poor households in the St. Albans constituency and around 22,200 fuel-poor households in Hertfordshire.
More recent figures are available for England and Wales. These show that in 2006, there were around 2.7 million fuel-poor households in England and Wales.
Fuel poverty is not measured at an individual level.
Housing: Insulation
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much has been spent insulating the homes of pensioners in each of the last 10 years. [250665]
Joan Ruddock [ h olding answer 26 January 2009 ] : Figures for the amounts spent on insulating pensioners’ homes are set out in the following table:
| Spend on insulation for the over 60s under the warm f ront scheme in England and the h ome e nergy e fficiency s cheme (HEES) in Wales | ||
| Number of h ouseholds assisted | Spend ( £ million ) | |
| n/a = No figures available | ||
The supplier obligation, which began in 2002, led to an estimated investment of almost £2 billion between 2002 and 2008 in household energy efficiency measures.
We estimate that energy suppliers invested around £800 million of this in a priority group of vulnerable and low-income households, including pensioners. Under the current three year phase of the obligation to 2011, known as the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT), we estimate suppliers alone will need to invest over £3.2 billion in household energy efficiency measures, £1.8 billion of which will be delivered to the priority group. However, Government have not made specific estimates for what proportion of the priority group spend by suppliers might be attributed to pensioners.
Industrial Injuries: Compensation
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much his Department has spent on medical testing of miners under the coal health compensation scheme since the introduction of the scheme; and how much has been paid to each provider of such tests in that period. [252776]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The total medical costs for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is £404.64 million; and for Vibration White Finger is £34.95 million as at December 2008. In the time available we are unable to breakdown these figures by provider.
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