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10 Mar 2009 : Column 405W—continued
Departmental Sick Leave
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (1) how many staff in his Department and its predecessors were on sick leave for (a) over 30 days, (b) over 50 days and (c) over 100 days in each of the last five years; [256323]
(2) what the average number of days of sick leave per staff member in his Department has been since it was established; [256381]
(3) how many staff in his Department were recorded as having been on sick leave for over 12 months on 31 December 2008. [256640]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Department of Energy and Climate Change has been formed by bringing together work previously covered by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Sickness absence records are currently held by the two legacy departments and a system for bringing these records together will be implemented for the new reporting year 2009-10. Until this system is in place the Department would incur a disproportionate cost in reporting these figures.
Economic Situation
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what (a) summits, (b) conferences and (c) seminars his Department has hosted since its inception at which a primary subject of discussion was the effect of the economic situation on matters within his Department’s responsibility. [259749]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: At the meeting in London on 18-19 December 2008 of Energy and Oil, Ministers considered the impact of the economic and financial crisis on the oil market.
In addition, Ministers and officials have regular engagements with other organisations including relevant Government Departments on a range of issues relating to the economy.
Energy Supply: Gloucestershire
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change which body is responsible for the maintenance of power lines in Gloucestershire; and how many (a) repairs, (b) upgrades and (c) scheduled maintenance visits were made in (i) Gloucestershire and (ii) Stroud constituency in each of the last five years. [248138]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Central Networks are responsible for the maintenance of power lines in Gloucestershire. I regret that figures for the number of repairs, upgrades and scheduled maintenance visits are not held centrally.
Energy: Meters
Mark Lazarowicz:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (1) whether priority in the introduction of smart meters will be given to communities where there is high use of pre-payment
meters combined with a large number of people in fuel poverty; and if he will make a statement; [260913]
(2) when the introduction of smart meters will begin; and in which areas. [260914]
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 linked to the implementation of this policy. We will make further announcements on these issues and the next steps towards roll out when we are able to do so.
Energy: Prices
Mr. Newmark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps his Department is taking to ensure that members of the public are aware of the social tariffs offered by energy utilities. [261602]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Suppliers agreed at the Fuel Poverty Summit organised by Ofgem in April 2008 to provide greater visibility of their offers. Following this Ofgem have worked with the suppliers to ensure that information about their social tariffs and programmes and a contact phone number for consumers to check their eligibility is available on all the suppliers' websites.
Energy suppliers have committed to collectively spend £100 million this year, rising to £125 million next year and £150 million by 2011 on social assistance. In order to meet this commitment to Government suppliers need to inform their customers about the assistance available to vulnerable groups through their social tariff scheme.
Expenditure on suppliers' social assistance is monitored by Ofgem and they estimated, in a report published in December 2008, that over 800,000 customer accounts are now benefiting from a social tariff. This is a significant increase, almost doubling, since March 2008 which is a good indication of the level of awareness of the assistance suppliers offer.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (1) what information his Department holds on the average length of time a customer has to be with an energy supplier before being able to apply for (a) a social tariff and (b) a discounted tariff with that supplier; [262127]
(2) how many and which energy suppliers offer a social tariff as defined by Ofgem; and if he will make a statement. [262128]
Mr. Mike O'Brien [holding answer 9 March 2009]: The Department does not hold any specific information on the average length of time a customer has to be with an energy supplier before being able to apply for a social or discounted tariff.
In their most recent report on suppliers’ social spend for 2007-08 available online:
published in December 2008, Ofgem supplied details of the qualifying criteria for the suppliers’ social and discounted tariffs. This information shows that there is no minimum qualifying period for a customer to be eligible for suppliers’ social and discounted tariffs. The only exception is E.On’s WarmAssist tariff, where a customer has to be with the company for at least a year before qualifying.
Ofgem set out its new criteria for what constitutes a social tariff. It proposed that for the financial year 2008-09, a supplier’s social tariff had to be as good as the standard direct debit tariff but going forwards, a social tariff has to be at least as good as the lowest tariff in a customer’s area.
SSE’s, ScottishPower’s and E.On’s social tariffs are already consistent with the new definition. EDF, British Gas and Npower have been reviewing their social tariffs and will look to launch new versions to comply with the new definition in financial year 2009-10 as set out by Ofgem.
Fuel Poverty: Hemel Hempstead
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent estimate he has made of the number of (a) people and (b) households in the Hemel Hempstead constituency that are in fuel poverty. [261278]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The most recent year for which constituency level estimates of fuel poverty are available is 2003. The data for fuel poverty levels for 2003 come from the Fuel Poverty Indicator dataset, available online at:
In 2003, there were around 2,000 households in the constituency of Hemel Hempstead living in fuel poverty.
Fuel poverty is not measured at an individual level.
Housing: Carbon Emissions
Mr. Charles Kennedy: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much his Department has awarded under Phase 2 of the Low Carbon Buildings programme to (a) charitable sector organisations and (b) each public sector department and body. [258458]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The following charitable sector organisations and public sector departments and bodies have been awarded the following amount of money under Phase 2 of the Low Carbon Building Programme:
| Type of organisation | Ground s ource h eat pump | Wind t urbine | Solar t hermal | Photovoltaic | Biomass boilers | Total |
Lord Truscott
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what correspondence his Department has (a) received from and (b) sent to Lord Truscott since its creation. [256918]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Since its creation, DECC has received one letter and three e-mails from Lord Truscott or his office, and has sent one e-mail in reply. This correspondence concerned an invitation to me to address members of the Royal United Services Institute on UK energy security issues. This proposed meeting was cancelled.
Natural Gas
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what his definition of the National Balancing Point is. [255213]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The National Balancing Point (NBP) is a notional point which represents the National Transmission System (NTS) for balancing purposes. Gas trading in Great Britain takes place via the NBP, which provides a virtual trading location for buying and selling into and out of the NTS.
Nuclear Power
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change for what reasons the publication of Dr Tim Stone's recommendations on nuclear regulation did not take place in accordance with the originally planned timetable. [256852]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: In January 2008, following the publication of the White Paper on Nuclear Power, the Government asked Dr. Tim Stone to conduct a review of the nuclear regulatory regime. We had previously indicated our intention to publish the recommendations in the autumn of 2008, but due to the need for full and careful consideration of the review this date was revised to early 2009. On 27 January 2009 we published the recommendations of Dr Stone's review.
Nuclear Power Stations
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if he will review his Department's policy on the construction of new nuclear power stations; and if he will make a statement. [244161]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: We set out our policy on nuclear in the Nuclear White Paper. This stated that the Government will take active steps to enable new build. It says we will implement these vigorously.
This continues to be our policy and we are making progress on our facilitative actions to increase certainty and remove roadblocks to new build.
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what requirements there are upon nuclear power plant operators to report to safety and environmental regulators the (a) instances and (b) quantities of radioactive gases emitted during re-fuelling; and whether such data are publicly available. [250937]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: There are no specific requirements for the reporting of radioactive gases emitted during refuelling.
Gaseous discharges from refuelling operations have been taken into account when setting station discharge limits. Discharges from refuelling operations are included in the periodic (monthly) reporting of gaseous discharges from power stations.
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