§ Mr. HardyTo ask the President of the Board of Trade in which member states of the EC the prices of electricity 595W used by the engineering steel industry are lower than that paid in the United Kingdom; and what is his estimate of the difference between the price paid by this industry in the United Kingdom and the average in other EC states.
§ Mr. Charles Wardle[holding answer 18 January 1995]: Information on the price of electricity used by individual industries such as engineering steel are not collected centrally by the Department of Trade and Industry, nor by the Statistical Office of the European Communities. The latest data published by the EC, which refer to prices at 1 July 1994, shows that for the majority of industrial customers, United Kingdom prices are amongst the lowest in Europe.
Prices data are taken from the latest Eurostat publication, "Rapid Reports—Energy and Industry 1994/33". Copies of these reports are held in the Library of the House. Data refer to 1 July 1994 and cover electricity prices for a number of levels of consumption. Generally United Kingdom electricity prices including all taxes and duties except VAT are among the lowest in Europe. For example:
- for consumers of 30,000 kWh a year, nine of the other 11 member states had higher prices than the UK;
- for consumers of 2 GWh a year, eight of the other 11 member states had higher prices than the UK; and
- for consumers of 50 GWh a year, nine of the other 11 member states had higher prices than the UK.