§ Mr. PendryTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what specific measures his Department has taken to promote energy efficiency; what further measures his Department intends to take to promote energy efficiency; and by what amount and what percentage of its total energy bill his Department's energy bill has been reduced over the past year.
§ Mr. David HuntMy predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Mr. Walker) published a strategic plan for the encouragement of energy efficiency in May 1989. Copies were placed in the Library of the House. Since then the Energy Efficiency Office in the Welsh Office has carried out a vigorous programme of visiting to industrial and commercial organisations and organised 40 seminars to promote tried and tested methods of efficiently reducing energy use.
346WFollowing the publications of the White Paper, "This Common Inheritance", these efforts are being intensified in Wales and throughout the United Kingdom and will be overseen by a ministerial committee chaired by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy. My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State is a member of the committee.
Figures for the Welsh Office's own energy expenditure in 1989–90 and 1990–91 are not available on a directly comparable basis because of the transfer of responsibility for bill paying from Property Services Agency to Welsh Office with effect from 1 April 1990.
§ Mr. Win GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what plans he has to introduce a similar programme to the energy efficiency demonstration programme scheduled to begin in England in April.
§ Mr. David HuntThere are no plans to earmark the substantial resources available for local authority renovation in 1991–92 for this specific purpose. Local authorities in Wales have already made very considerable progress in improving the energy efficiency of their stock and it will be for them to decide what priority to accord further energy efficiency measures.