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14 Dec 2009 : Column 925W—continued
Departmental Security
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many security passes his Department has issued to contractors providing consultancy services in the last 12 months. [303948]
Joan Ruddock: DECC's access control policies are implemented in line with the HMG Security Policy Framework, Mandatory Requirements 56, 57 and 58. The Department does not have the information requested as there is no requirement for the DECC pass system to specifically identify contractors who are providing consultancy services to the Department.
Departmental Taxis
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many miles (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department and its predecessors travelled by taxi in the course of their official duties in each year since 1997; and at what cost to the public purse in each such year. [302707]
Joan Ruddock: The Department of Energy and Climate Change was established in 3 October 2008.
Mileage information is not collected when taxi claims are submitted by officials using taxi hire companies. For ministerial taxi travel using the Government Car and Despatch Service where travel mileage is available the distance recorded for the period 3 October 2008 to 31 March 2009 is 915 miles.
The total cost for ministerial and official taxi travel in the period 3 October 2008 to 31 March 2009 was £63,000.
Departmental Travel
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change on what date he last travelled by (a) bus and (b) taxi in the course of his official duties. [302727]
Joan Ruddock: In the course of his official duties, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State last travelled by taxi on 11 November 2009. All travel by Ministers is undertaken in accordance with the 'Ministerial Code'.
Departmental Written Questions
John Mason: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many questions tabled for answer on a named day his Department received in each of the last 12 months; and to how many such questions his Department provided a substantive answer on the day named. [305379]
Joan Ruddock: For the period 1 December 2008 to 30 November 2009 357 named day questions were tabled to DECC and of these 104 received substantive answers on the day.
Energy Supply
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps have been taken in relation to the possibility to exercise the reserve powers provided under the Energy Act 2008 for the Government rather than Ofgem to set the grid access regime. [304470]
Mr. Kidney: The Government launched a consultation on options for grid access reform on 25 August 2009, and this closed on 17 November. The consultation document was placed in the House Libraries, and is also available from the DECC website at:
We are currently considering responses received to the consultation and will publish a Government Response alongside a further, technical consultation on our preferred option and the changes to industry codes and licences associated with implementation in early 2010. We intend to implement the changes to codes and licences to ensure the regime can take effect from June 2010.
Energy Supply: Cybercrime
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if he will consider the merits of bringing forward legislative proposals for a mandatory duty for energy utility companies to report breaches in their cyber-security to Ministers. [302669]
Mr. Kidney: Existing good practice is that a cyber security breach resulting in a loss or compromise of customers' details would be reported to the Office of the Information Commissioner. DECC works closely with other areas of Government (notably the Office of Cyber Security (OCS) and the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI)) to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities in the national infrastructure that could be exploited by cyber threats, and to share best practice across the critical national infrastructure.
If a cyber security breach impacts an energy utility company's operational capability leading to security of supply concerns, I have existing procedures (including my Department's emergency response plans) and existing powers (including, where appropriate, emergency powers under the Energy Act 1976) to intervene.
Energy: Conservation
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the budget is of the Community Energy Saving Programme; and which organisations will coordinate the associated community energy assessors. [307080]
Joan Ruddock: We expect the energy companies to deliver around £350 million worth of energy efficiency measures in discharging their obligations under the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP).
The obligated energy companies are responsible for the energy advice delivered under CESP. Such advice must be delivered in accordance with the Electricity and Gas (Community Energy Saving Programme) Order 2009 and Ofgem's supporting CESP guidance.
Energy: Housing
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Home Heat helpline; and whether his Department collects data on the uptake of home energy support benefits in each constituency. [304682]
Joan Ruddock: The Home Heat Helpline is run through the Energy Retail Association and is funded by the energy suppliers. Spend by suppliers on the Home Heat Helpline is reported on and monitored by Ofgem under the voluntary agreement between suppliers and the Government for spending on programmes of social assistance. Ofgem's latest report is available online at:
http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Pages/MoreInformation.aspx?docid=263&;refer=Sustainability/SocAction/Suppliers/CSR
The DECC-funded Warm Front scheme, which operates in England only, provides a range of energy saving measures to applicants in receipt of certain passports benefits. Eaga plc, the scheme manager, gathers performance data by region, local authority area and constituency on behalf of the Department.
Fuel poverty is a devolved matter, and devolved Governments collect their own data.
The Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) is a GB-wide obligation that requires the big six energy suppliers to report measures installed to the regulator, Ofgem. Measures installed are reported at GB level and no information on where this occurs is currently kept. To address this deficiency, the Government are negotiating a voluntary agreement with the energy suppliers for them to report the installation of measures into the Homes Energy Efficiency Database (HEED) managed by the Energy Saving Trust, and it is hoped to conclude these negotiations shortly.
Energy: Meters
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many households in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK had (i) electricity and (ii) gas pre-payment meters in each of the last 10 years. [303646]
Mr. Kidney: Ofgem monitors and publishes information about gas and electricity prepayment customers. However, prepayment data are not collected on a parliamentary constituency or borough council basis. Ofgem published figures for the 10-year period in its Domestic Suppliers Social Obligation 2008 report. The number of customers in Great Britain using prepayment meters was:
| Customers in Great Britain using prepayment meters | ||||||||||
| Million | ||||||||||
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many domestic energy customers in each (a) constituency and (b) local authority area use pre-payment meters. [304492]
Mr. Kidney: Ofgem monitors and publishes information about gas and electricity prepayment customers. However, data are not collected on a parliamentary constituency or local authority basis. In June 2009, the last period for which data have been published, the number of customers in Great Britain using prepayment meters was 2,464,377 for gas and 3,698,628 for electricity. In Scotland, the number of customers using prepayment meters was 242,688 for gas and 476,794 for electricity.
Fuel Poverty
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent estimate he has made of the number of households living in fuel poverty in (a) Chesterfield constituency, (b) Derbyshire and (c) England. [307167]
Mr. Kidney: The most recent available sub-regional split of fuel poverty relates to 2006, and shows that there were around 4,900 fuel poor households in the Chesterfield constituency and around 54,500 fuel poor households in the county of Derbyshire.
More recent figures are available for England. These show that in 2007, there were around 2.8 million fuel poor households in England.
Gas and Electricity Markets Authority: Public Relations
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what payments Ofgem has made to Finsbury in the last 12 months; for what purposes; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the contract governing those payments. [305065]
Mr. Kidney: Ofgem made the following payments to Finsbury for communications related activities:
| Financial year | Total paid (£) |
The Department does not hold any information on the commercial contract between Ofgem and Finsbury. I have therefore asked Ofgem's chief executive to write to the hon. Gentleman direct.
Hotels
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets has spent on hotel accommodation for its officials in each of the last five years. [306042]
Mr. Kidney: Ofgem does not record specific information on expenditure on hotel accommodation but it does publish annual information on overall travel and subsistence expenditure. Over the last five years, its expenditure on travel and subsistence has been as follows:
| Period | Expenditure (£000) |
I have liaised with Ofgem over this reply. As it explains, Ofgem does not record specific information about hotel costs. This reply draws on information published in Ofgem's annual resource account statements which are available through its website.
Members: Correspondence
Mr. McLoughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change when he expects to reply to the letter from the right hon. Member for West Derbyshire of 24 August 2009 concerning Hydropower in Derbyshire, ref: PM/OP/Hydropower. [307165]
Joan Ruddock: My noble colleague Lord Hunt of King's Heath OBE responded on 8 December 2009. Such a delay is obviously unacceptable and my officials have investigated the reasons for the error and are adjusting correspondence handling procedures to prevent this happening again.
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change when his Department expects to publish its response to the report on energy security by the right hon. Member for Croydon North. [307229]
Mr. Kidney: My right hon. Friend the Member for Croydon, North (Malcolm Wicks) has raised a number of important issues which we are studying carefully and the Government will publish a response in due course.
Official Engagements
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what meetings he has had with the Government's Chief Sustainability Officer in the last 12 months. [304484]
Joan Ruddock: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has regular meetings with ministerial colleagues, officials and others.
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