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29 Jun 2010 : Column 492W—continued
Social Security Benefits: Disability
Ms Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the Financial Statement of 22 June 2010, Official Report, columns 116-30, what estimate he has made of the savings arising from each measure announced in respect of each disability benefit in the next five years. [4502]
Maria Miller: The available information is in the following tables.
| Savings from reform of disability living allowance assessment | |
| £ million, nominal | |
| Total | |
| Notes: 1. Figures are for Great Britain only. 2. Estimates of savings are only available up to 2014-15 at present. Source: DWP calculations | |
Energy and Climate Change
Departmental Public Expenditure
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many of his Department's contracts with its suppliers are under review as a result of the recently announced reductions in public expenditure; and what the monetary value is of all such contracts which are under review. [3637]
Gregory Barker: The Department of Energy and Climate Change is currently analysing all contracts with its top 100 suppliers (by value). On completion of this exercise a strategy will be developed to determine which contracts can be renegotiated. As this exercise is still ongoing there are no figures available for contracts under review.
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many officials in his Department are working on renegotiating contracts for the supply of goods and services to the Department as a result of recently announced reductions in public spending; what savings are expected to accrue to his Department from such renegotiations; how much expenditure his Department will incur on such renegotiations; and when such renegotiations will be completed. [3659]
Gregory Barker:
The Department of Energy and Climate Change is currently analysing all contracts with its top 100 suppliers (by value). On completion of this
exercise a strategy will be developed to determine which contracts can be renegotiated. Therefore at the present time it cannot be determined how many DECC officials will be working on renegotiating contracts and what cost savings are expected. Any renegotiation work is expected to be handled by existing contract mangers. At this stage it is not possible to determine when contract renegotiations will be complete.
Energy Subsidy Reform
Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what contribution his Department made to the Joint Report of the International Energy Authority, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Bank on energy subsidy reform. [4686]
Charles Hendry: The report was commissioned by the G20 at the Pittsburgh Summit and was produced independently by the international organisations.
Energy: Billing
Mr Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the proportion of the average household energy bill attributable to contributions for production subsidies. [4374]
Charles Hendry [holding answer 28 June 2010]: The only subsidy for the production of electricity generation capacity currently reflected in energy bills is the renewables obligation, which Ofgem estimates to account for 3% of current average household electricity bills.
Radioactive Waste: Waste Management
David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether he plans to take steps to increase the amount of information available to the public about the safety of nuclear waste disposal. [4777]
Charles Hendry: Detailed information about the safety of nuclear waste disposal is already publicly available and the Government are committed to maintaining this position and making such information as openly available and accessible as possible. The Department is currently considering how it can provide increased visibility of the programme to implement geological disposal of higher activity radioactive waste including the possibility of a published timeline and milestones.
Following nearly three years of extensive consideration, the independent Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) gathered and published sufficient evidence to include geological disposal of higher activity waste as the key element of their package of recommendations to Government in 2006. Geological disposal is internationally recognised as the preferred approach to deal with higher activity waste and is being adopted in many countries as well as being supported by a number of UK learned societies including the Royal Society, the Geological Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Detailed information from CoRWM's consideration of the options is available at:
In setting out how geological disposal will be implemented, the Department has set up a dedicated website:
which provides, or links to, information at various levels of detail and which is intended to be accessible and helpful to people from non-technical backgrounds through to experts. This includes links to waste management organisations in other countries who are tackling similar issues and to international expert bodies such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has been given responsibility for implementing geological disposal and will shortly be publishing "Geological Disposal: Steps towards implementation" setting out the preparatory work already undertaken, as well as explaining how the outputs of its work programme are designed to achieve a safe, secure, sustainable and publicly acceptable outcome. This will be available at:
A geological disposal facility will be regulated by the statutory regulators, who are working together to make sure that any future facility meets the required high standards for environmental protection, safety, security, waste management and radioactive waste transportation. Information on this is available from their joint website at:
In 2009, following public consultation, the environment agencies also published extensive guidance for geological and near-surface disposal facilities for radioactive waste and this is available at:
Renewable Energy
Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps he plans to take to encourage the use of energy from renewable heat sources. [4266]
Gregory Barker: The Government are committed to increasing the amount of renewable heat in the UK; this is a crucial part of ensuring we meet our renewables targets, cutting carbon and ensuring energy security.
We are currently looking at the renewable heat incentive (RHI) proposals. Clearly there are benefits to the scheme, but we must also consider the impact of the costs, particularly given the financial constraints we must work within and the potential impact that funding options could have on vulnerable people.
We are aware that there is uncertainty in the renewable heating industry and want to provide certainty and clarity as quickly as possible, but must make sure that we make the right decision.
We will look to make an announcement on the future of the proposed scheme as soon as possible.
Renewable Energy: Feed-in Tariffs
Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what his policy is on expanding feed-in tariffs to include electricity generated from biomass. [3786]
Charles Hendry: Eligibility within FITs will be considered when the scheme is reviewed. Periodic reviews of the FITs scheme will be timed to coincide with the renewables obligation reviews, the first of which would see changes implemented in 2013.
Biomass will continue to be eligible to receive support through the renewables obligation at all levels.
Wales
Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change with reference to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's announcement of 24 May 2010 and pursuant to the answer of 7 June 2010, Official Report, column 69W on public expenditure, Wales, which of his Department's non-devolved public expenditure savings will be incurred in Wales; and what estimate he has made of the likely financial savings. [2968]
Gregory Barker: While it is possible that some of the savings announced will have an impact in Wales, it is not possible at this stage to specify reductions to DECC programmes or delivery bodies' budgets that will directly affect Wales.
In particular, the Department is still reviewing precisely which activities it will stop or scale back under its national Environmental Transformation Fund and its Low Carbon Investment Funding.
Justice
Prison Sentences: Wales
Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many residents of (a) Wrexham and (b) North Wales served custodial sentences of six months or fewer in the last three years for which figures are available; [4270]
(2) how many residents of (a) Wrexham and (b) North Wales served custodial sentences in each of the last three years for which figures are available. [4271]
Mr Blunt: Data are published annually on the number of offenders released from prison having served custodial sentences, most recently data for 2008 which was published on the Ministry of Justice website in Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2008 under the following link:
However, information on offenders' home addresses is not routinely recorded on the data held centrally, and could be provided only through manual checking of prisoner records at disproportionate cost.
The following table shows the number of discharges from determinate and life sentences from prisons in England and Wales in each year from 2006 to 2008. Data for 2009 will be published in Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2009 on 22 July 2010.
| Number | |||
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
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