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8 Apr 2010 : Column 1521W—continued
Carbon Emissions: Advertising
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what procedures his Department has put in place to evaluate the effectiveness of the Act on Carbon Dioxide advertising campaign; and if he will make a statement. [323816]
Joan Ruddock [holding answer 23 March 2010]: The Act On CO2 advertising campaign is designed to encourage individuals to make the changes in behaviour necessary to reduce carbon emissions, and mitigate the effects of climate change. The Department evaluates the campaign using a range of measures: Pre and post campaign omnibus surveys to assess shifts in awareness, attitudes and claimed behaviour; number of website visits, indicating the degree to which the campaign has generated a desire among the public to find out more; click-through rates from online display advertisements; where applicable, number of telephone calls generated; number of visits to the Act On CO2 carbon calculator and assessment from third party partners of the success of the campaign.
Climate Change: International Cooperation
Richard Younger-Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the UK's participation in the Copenhagen climate change summit. [316866]
Joan Ruddock: I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave to the hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson) on 7 January 2010, Official Report, columns 630-31W, and the hon. Member for Angus (Mr. Weir) on 21 January 2010, Official Report, column 468W.
Since 1999 the Government have published on an annual basis a list of all overseas visits by Cabinet Ministers costing in excess of £500, as well as the total cost of all ministerial travel overseas. From 2007-08 the list was extended to include all Ministers. The list also provides information on the number of officials who accompany Ministers. Copies are available in the Libraries of the House. Information for 2009-10 will be published as soon as the information is available.
Electricity Generation
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the additional electricity generating capacity required by 2020. [325617]
Mr. Kidney: Under central modelling assumptions, it is estimated we will need about 43 gigawatts (GW) net of new electricity generation capacity by 2020.
Angela Watkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the additional electricity generating capacity required by 2020. [325618]
Mr. Kidney: In addition to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Blaby (Mr. Robathan) earlier today, taking into account planned closures of existing power plants and other factors such as the renewables targets, modelling suggests we might need around 100 GW of total capacity in 2020. In a typical year now peak consumption will be around 60 GW and total available supply around 80 GW.
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the additional electricity generating capacity required by 2020. [325626]
Mr. Kidney: Under central modelling assumptions, it is estimated we will need about 43 gigawatts (GW) net of new electricity generation capacity by 2020.
Environment Protection: West Midlands
Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assistance the EU has provided to the West Midlands for the development of green (a) technologies and (b) jobs in the last two years. [325240]
Ian Lucas: I have been asked to reply.
The following projects have been approved to date under Priority Axis 1 of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2007-13 programme which supports Innovation and Research and Development. The programme is administered in the West Midlands by Advantage West Midlands.
Energy Efficiency-£4.94 million
Low Carbon Vehicle Technology-£9.50 million (This project is expected to safeguard 2,150 jobs)
A number of general innovation/R and D support projects (including Knowledge Transfer Partnerships) have also been supported some of which include a focus on green technologies and jobs. Funding of over £15 million has been approved to date.
Under Priority Axis 2 of the 2007-13 ERDF programme which focuses on stimulating enterprise development the following projects have been approved to date:
Competitiveness through Collaboration-£184,315 for an Environmental Technologies Supply Chain Network for the rural west of the region.
West Midlands Industrial Symbiosis Network-£1,054,302 to develop links between companies so that under-used resources such as energy, water and/or materials from one are recovered, reprocessed and then re-used by others. The project is expected to create 40 jobs and safeguard 82.
Rethink Energy-£1,005,335 funding to support Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to undertake feasibility studies and install renewable energy technologies. The project is expected to create an additional 12 jobs.
Enviro Supply chain network-£283,306 to encourage manufacturing SMEs to work together to improve environmental processes. The project is expected to create 15 jobs.
Further funding has also been provided for other projects which support business development or innovation which will include support to those involved in green technologies.
Under the EU-funded Rural Development Programme for England (RPDE) programme the following projects which support green technologies and jobs have been approved so far in the 2007-13 programming period:
Certainly Wood-£403,000 approved for capital equipment support to a wood fuel business.
Freshfields Fruit LLP-£265,000 approved for capital equipment support to a strawberry growing business for water harvesting and recycling.
West Midlands Woodfuel Project-£827,000 approved for revenue support to West Midlands forestry wood fuel businesses.
It is not possible to report on jobs created or safeguarded by these projects at this stage.
There are also a number of RDPE initiatives supporting farm diversification and rural enterprises which may support green technologies and jobs.
Further support will be provided during the later stages of the programmes.
No specific indicators were set for green jobs or technologies in the West Midlands 2000-06 Objective 2 Programme. A total of 2,769 businesses were, however, assisted with environmental management as part of the Programme's Environmental Sustainability theme.
Opposition
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether his Department has undertaken costings of the policies of the (a) Conservative Party and (b) Liberal Democrat Party at the request of Ministers or special advisers since its inception. [324244]
Mr. Kidney: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my right hon. Friend the Exchequer Secretary on 30 March 2010, Official Report, column 1913W.
Public Buildings: Energy
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether there are mechanisms in place to assist the provision of energy efficiency measures and equipment in (a) community centres, (b) public halls, (c) social clubs and (d) other community facilities; and what recent representations he has received from community representatives on those matters. [323344]
Joan Ruddock: The Low Carbon Communities Challenge (LCCC) is a two-year research programme funded by DECC providing financial and practical support to 22 "test-bed" communities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The purpose of the challenge is to test delivery options for achieving ambitious cuts in carbon emissions at community level.
Communities selected will be providing energy efficiency improvements to public buildings, including community centres and schools. The LCCC will provide replicable models of what works at a community level, which can inform future Government policy and inspire action in other communities across the country.
The Department receives a variety of correspondence relating to energy efficiency matters.
Warm Front Scheme
Mrs. Spelman:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the Answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough of 3 March 2010, Official Report, column 1205W, on energy: housing,
what the cost of the Warm Front pilots cited in the Answer has been to date. [324843]
Mr. Kidney: The following table shows the total spend to date on Warm Front pilots including Solar Thermal and Air Source Heat Pumps(1).
| Pilot | Cost excluding VAT (£) |
At the present time, there has been no money spent on the pilot for the external wall insulation of park homes as work is being planned with customers but has yet to be installed.
(1) To 21 March 2010
Home Department
Crimes of Violence
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) most, (b) less and (c) summary violent offences were recorded in each police force area in each year since 2002-03; and how many people were convicted of violent offences of each type in each of those years. [319820]
Alan Johnson [holding answer 1 March 2010]: Information is not available in the requested format. The available information relates to offences of violence against the person with and without injury and is given in Tables 1 and 2. Summary offences of assault without injury are included within the violence against the person without injury grouping. Summary offences without injury are "assault without injury on a constable", "assault without injury", and "racially or religiously aggravated assault without injury". Separate figures for these offences are given in Table 3.
These police recorded crime data relate to the number of offences recorded in each financial year.
In April 2002, the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) was introduced. This brought in a more victim-focused reporting system, where victim accounts had to be accepted unless there was credible evidence to the contrary. It took some forces several years to adjust to the new recording practice, meaning that comparisons from 2002-03 to 2008-09 should be treated with caution.
Home Office statisticians advise that the British Crime Survey (BCS) is the best guide to long-term trends for the crime types it covers because it has a consistent methodology and is unaffected by levels of reporting or police recording. However, the BCS is not designed to provide robust estimates of different crimes at police force area.
Annual BCS figures are estimates based on data from the interviews carried out in the previous 12 months. Estimates for the violent crimes covered by the survey show a 22 per cent. fall in England and Wales from 2002-03 to 2008-09. Over the same period, police recorded crime figures show a 7 per cent. increase in violence against the person offences.
Conviction data have been provided by the Ministry of Justice and relate to the number of offenders. These data are published on a calendar year basis and are counts of persons classified by their principal offence.
As the data come from different sources and are reported on different periods, the two datasets are not comparable.
Information on the offenders dealt with by the Criminal Justice System does not necessarily reflect wider trends
for characteristics of perpetrators of crimes, where often an offender will not be apprehended.
The number of persons found guilty at all courts in England and Wales for offences of violence against the person, by type and police force area, from 2002 to 2008 (latest available), can be viewed in the Tables 4, 5, and 6.
Court proceedings data for 2009 are planned for publication in autumn 2010.
| Table 1: Recorded offences of violence against the person with injury, 2002-03 to 2008-09 | |||||||
| Police f orce | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 |
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