§ Mr. RostTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what potential energy savings at the Palace of Westminster were indicated in the feasibility study commissioned by his Department; what was the recommended required investment; what was the indicated payback period; when he proposes to undertake the investment; and if he will release the study to the Library.
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§ Mr. ChopeAn energy audit of the Palace of Westminster was commissioned by the Parliamentary Works Office in 1988 as part of the normal process of ensuring that its planned programme for the care and maintenance of the Palace takes proper account of needs and priorities.
The report contain 130 recommendations. It identified the scope for savings of £217,000 pa. In the nine months since the report was received work has been completed which will achieve savings of over £70,000 pa. Further work is dependent on other developments, particularly the upgrading of the power supply. £0.6 million has been spent on this work in the current year and further major work will be carried out next year.
In other cases major design work and or capital expenditure would be required to implement the recommendations. The saving from these, in aggregate, would be less than £50,000 pa for an investment of over £300,000 with pay-back periods mainly greater than four years. The timing of these schemes will be considered with the appropriate House Committees against other demands for the capital works programme.