HC Deb 27 November 2001 vol 375 cc843-4W
Mr. Sayeed

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans there are to improve the energy efficiency of Government Departments. [16745]

Mr. Meacher

I am replying as the Department has overall responsibility for reporting on the energy efficiency of the Government estate.

At the end of our 10-year campaign to improve energy consumption by 20 per cent., last year we set a target of reducing our CO2 emissions by 1 per cent. against 1999–2000 levels. We will report on our first year's performance against this next year. We are also developing new realistic but challenging targets for reducing our energy consumption. These will be based on an assessment of the estate's performance against national standards, which will be available next year.

I expect to make an announcement about the estate's energy efficiency performance over the past decade shortly.