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9 Mar 2010 : Column 258W—continued
Any UK gas sourced from Russia is negligible.
Fuel Poverty
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent estimate he has made of the number of households in (a) England and (b) the UK who are in fuel poverty in 2010. [320321]
Mr. Kidney: We will be producing and publishing projections for England in 2010 later this year.
Housing: Insulation
Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many houses have been insulated in Bolton under Government schemes in each of the last five years. [321189]
Mr. Kidney: The three principal Government schemes to encourage take-up of energy efficiency measures in Great Britain are Warm Front, the Decent Homes programme, and the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT). Table A shows the number of homes in Bolton to be insulated under Warm Front since the scheme began in 2000.
Local authority and housing association homes are assisted through the Government-funded Decent Homes programme, as well as councils' own capital resources. Table B shows the capital investment allocated by Government to Bolton council for their housing stock since 2001 through Decent Homes.
CERT is an obligation on energy suppliers to achieve reductions in the level of CO2 emitted by the domestic sector. It and its predecessor schemes have delivered some 7.5 million key insulation measures to homes in Great Britain since 2002. Energy suppliers are not currently required to report at local authority level where they have installed measures. The Department is currently finalising agreements with the suppliers and the Energy Saving Trust which will enable the reporting of the
number of CERT measures professionally installed to a local authority level. It will also allow local authorities to sign agreements with the Energy Saving Trust to see energy efficiency delivery in their local areas.
| Table A: Number of houses in Bolton that have been insulated through the Warm Front Scheme in the last five years | |||||
| 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10( 1) | |
| (1) Up to 28 February 2010. Source: EAGA 2010 | |||||
Insulation
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether he has made a recent estimate of the number and proportion of homes with (a) no, (b) less than 50 mm of, (c) between 50 and 99 mm of, (d) between 100 and 149 mm of, (e) between 150 and 199 mm of and (f) 200 mm or more of loft insulation. [320318]
Joan Ruddock: The most recent assessment of loft insulation in homes was undertaken for the English Housing Survey in 2008. The relevant data from that survey are summarized in the following table:
| Insulation status | No i nsulation | Less than 50mm | 50 up to 99mm | 100 up to 149mm | 150 up to 199mm | 200mm or more |
Insulation: Government Assistance
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many homes have had insulation improvements funded by his Department since 11 September 2008. [320306]
Joan Ruddock: The Warm Front scheme provides loft and cavity wall insulation and draught proofing for vulnerable households. The scheme records the measures delivered. Some homes will have received more than one insulation measure. The following table shows the number of insulation measures delivered by the scheme between 11 September 2008 and 28 February 2010.
| Total insulation installed - 11 September 2008 to 28 February 2010 | |
| Insulation measure | Number installed |
| Note: A proportion of these measures were funded by contributions from energy suppliers as part of the CERT programme. | |
Joint Research Centre
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether (a) his Department and (b) the Office for Civil Nuclear Security will provide (i) personnel and (ii) resources to the Euratom/Joint Research Centre Research Laboratory in Karlsruhe. [321123]
Mr. Kidney: The Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Office for Civil Nuclear Security do not, and have no plans to, provide personnel or resources to the Joint Research Centre (JRC) laboratory in Karlsruhe.
The Institute for Transuranium Elements (JRC-ITU) in Karlsruhe is one of seven institutes of the JRC that functions as a reference centre of science and technology for the European Union. Funding for the JRC-ITU is provided by the European Commission (EC). The EC has allocated €517 million for the nuclear activities of the JRC under Euratom Framework Programme 7.
Natural Gas
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (1) what the (a) lowest and (b) highest daily volume of UK continental shelf natural gas production has been since 1 September 2008; [320309]
(2) what the (a) lowest and (b) highest monthly volume of UK continental shelf natural gas production has been since 1 September 2008. [320310]
Mr. Kidney: In the period 1 September 2008 to 31 December 2009 (the latest month for which data are available), the (a) lowest monthly volume of UK continental shelf gross gas production was 3.4 billion cubic metres in August 2009, and (b) the highest was 6.8 billion cubic metres in January 2009.
The Department for Energy and Climate change collects monthly data from the gas operators and it is not, therefore, possible to identify the lowest and highest daily volumes of gas production.
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the gas balancing alert trigger level was for each day between 1 and 19 January 2010. [320322]
Mr. Kidney: The gas balancing alert trigger levels are set by National Grid and are published on the National Grid website, under notices, at:
Natural Gas: Electricity
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the percentage of UK electricity likely to be supplied from renewable sources in each year to 2015. [320365]
Mr. Kidney: The following table gives the percentage of electricity generation from renewable sources in the central scenario from the Low Carbon Transition plan.
| Percentage | |
Natural Gas: Imports
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what proportion of the UK's gas demand was met from (a) imports via a pipeline, (b) imports via liquefied natural gas terminals and (c) domestic production in the most recent year for which figures are available. [320511]
Mr. Kidney: The Department for Energy and Climate change collects and publishes monthly data on production, imports and exports of gas in tables ET 4.2 and ET 4.3 on DECC's energy statistics website:
The tables mentioned above contain provisional 2009 data which show that gross demand (which includes gas exported) was met as follows:
(a) Imports by pipeline 32 per cent.
(b) Imports via liquefied natural gas terminals 10 per cent.
(c) Domestic production 58 per cent.
Natural Gas: Storage
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the (a) capacity and (b) maximum withdrawal rate is of each UK gas storage site. [320303]
Mr. Kidney: The Government do not publish detailed technical information on each storage site. However, the latest information on both the capacity and maximum deliverability by UK gas storage site can be found in National Grid's 2009 Ten Year Statement.
Nuclear Power: Research
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what research his Department has undertaken into the economic viability of installing, maintaining and decommissioning new nuclear plants without public funding; and if he will make a statement. [321339]
Mr. Kidney: The White Paper on Nuclear Power (2008) states that
"it will be for energy companies to fund, develop and build new nuclear power stations in the UK, including meeting the full costs of decommissioning and their full share of waste management costs".
Section 2 of the White Paper includes more detail on the Government's assessment of the economics of nuclear power.
As announced in the 2009 pre-Budget report, the Department of Energy and Climate Change and HM Treasury are taking forward work to ensure the electricity market framework can most effectively deliver a fair deal for the consumer and the low-carbon investment needed in the long term. This work will report back with initial findings at Budget 2010.
Public Bodies: Energy
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many officials are employed by the (a) Coal Authority, (b) Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, (c) Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, (d) UK Energy Research Partnership and (e) Civil Nuclear Police Authority. [320319]
Mr. Kidney: The number of officials employed by these organisations is set out in the table:
| Organisation | Number of employees |
| (1) Executives/staff plus eight non executives (2) Employees - made up of 837 police officers and 141 police staff with an additional 20 agency/staff. In addition, the chairman and two independent members of the board are appointed by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and are not included in the employee figures but are on the payroll of the CNPA | |
The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management is an advisory body to the UK Government and devolved administrations and does not employ any officials directly. The Committee's Secretariat consists of three to four people employed by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
The Energy Research Partnership is a partnership between, government, industry and research organisations. No civil servants (officials) are employed by ERP. The ERP's Secretariat is supported by a civil servant on a part-time basis.
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