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22 Oct 2009 : Column 1572W—continued
Energy: Meters
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (1) if he will bring forward proposals for the compulsory installation of stand-alone home energy displays alongside smart meters; [294035]
(2) what steps he plans to take to ensure that energy suppliers provide stand-alone home energy displays alongside smart meters under the smart metering scheme. [294106]
Mr. Kidney [holding answer 19 October 2009]: The Government recently published a consultation on smart metering for electricity and gas. As part of the consultation the Government invited views on the type of consumption information that should be provided to consumers, and on the expectation that stand-alone, real-time displays would be provided with smart meters. The Government will respond to the consultation in due course.
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps his Department is taking to ensure that energy companies work with local authorities to deliver the smart metering scheme. [294107]
Mr. Kidney [holding answer 19 October 2009]: The Government recently published a consultation on smart metering for electricity and gas. This included questions on a range of delivery and deployment options. The Government will respond to the consultation in due course. Following the Government response work will commence on detailed preparation for the full roll-out of smart meters.
Energy: Prices
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps his Department is taking to encourage fuel companies to pass on reductions in energy costs to customers. [294121]
Mr. Kidney [holding answer 20 October 2009]: The Government have asked Ofgem to report on wholesale costs and retail prices on a quarterly basis, to improve transparency. The latest of these reports was issued in August. The Government and Ofgem have made it clear that we expect to see energy suppliers reduce prices when costs allow.
Plutonium: Exports
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the answer of 9 September 2009, Official Report, column 1976W, on plutonium: exports, (a) which ships were used in each respective transport to which reference is made and (b) which United Kingdom port of departure and Swedish port of destination was used in each case; and when he expects the irradiated advanced cooled reactor fuel pins to be returned to the United Kingdom from Sweden. [292490]
Mr. Kidney: The Intermediate Level Waste containing approximately 5g of plutonium was contained within drums and shipped in a lorry from Immingham to Gothenburg on a normal commercial ferry. The cargo met all the regulatory and licence requirements for the chosen method of transport.
The container of 46 irradiated advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) fuel pins containing less than 400g of plutonium was shipped from Workington to Wallhamn on the Atlantic Osprey. This is a special-purpose cargo vessel, approved by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to International Maritime Organisation standards to be certificated as an INF2 (Irradiated Nuclear Fuel) vessel.
The fuel pins are still undergoing analytical examination and plans for their return to the UK have not yet been made.
Sellafield
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether (a) his Department and (b) the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has contracts with (i) Nuclear Management Partners and (ii) Sellafield Ltd. on the management of the Sellafield site. [289876]
Mr. Kidney: The Department of Energy and Climate Change does not have any contracts with Nuclear Management Partners or Sellafield Ltd. The NDA have:
(i) a Parent Body Agreement with Nuclear Management Partners (redacted copy available on NDA website www.nda.gov.uk; and
(ii) a Management and Operations contract with Sellafield Ltd. (redacted copy available on NDA website www.nda.gov.uk).
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether (a) his Department and (b) the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority expect to receive fees from (i) Nuclear Management Partners and (ii) Sellafield Ltd. in relation to the management of the Sellafield site. [289877]
Mr. Kidney: Under the terms of its contract with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) will be able to earn performance related fees. No fees will be paid by NMP to either the NDA or the Government.
Home Department
Bigamy
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) offences of bigamy have been recorded and (b) how many people have been (i) prosecuted and (ii) convicted for offences related to bigamy in each police force area in each year since 1997. [294156]
Alan Johnson: The Home Office has responsibility for the police recorded crime statistics and figures for the number of offences of bigamy recorded by the police are given in Tables 1-3.
Court proceedings statistics are collected by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform. Table 4 shows the number of persons proceeded against at magistrates' courts and
found guilty at all courts for bigamy in England and Wales from 1997 to 2007 (latest available). Data for 2008 are planned for publication at the end of January 2010.
The police recorded crime data are based on the number of offences recorded in each financial year. Court proceedings data are based on the number of offenders. These data are published on a calendar year basis and are counts of persons classified by their principal offence. For these reasons the two datasets are not directly comparable.
| Table 1: Offences of bigamy recorded by the police | |
| Number of offences | |
| Police force area | 1997 |
| Table 2: Offences of bigamy recorded by the police( 1, 2) | ||||
| Number of offences | ||||
| Police force area | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 |
| (1) The coverage was extended and counting rules revised from 1998-99. Figures from that date are not directly comparable with those for 1997. (2) The data in this table is prior to the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002. These figures are not directly comparable with those for later years. | ||||
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