§ Lord AVEBURYasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether it is still their policy to give answers to Questions when the information requested is not readily available from published sources; and, if so, whether they will reconsider the answer given by the Earl of Gowrie on "electricity supply; maximum demand" on March 31st, bearing in mind that to obtain the information will require examination of 10 separate reports of the Electricity Council and that the point of the original Question was to bring these sets of figures together.
The EARL of GOWRIEThe answer to the noble Lord's previous Question drew his attention to information readily available in graphical form as Figure 2 of 635WA the Electricity Council's "Medium-Term Development Plan 1976–86", copies of which have already been placed in the Library of the House. However, for the convenience of the noble Lord, a table is set out below:
Actual SMD Forecast of ACS SMD made 6/7 years previously Estimated SMD in ACS conditions year (GW) (GW) (GW) 1970–1 38.6 54.0 39.8 1971–2 29.9 55.0 40.8 1972–3 40.6 54.0 42.6 1973–4 39.7 54.0 (a) 1974–5 41.0 53.0 41.9 1975–6 41.4 54.0 41.1 1976–7 42.1 54.0 42.0 1977–8 42.8 55.0 42.4 1978–9 44.1 56.5 43.8 1979–80 — 57.5 — 1980–1 — (b) — 1981–2 — 54.0 — 1982–3 — 52.0 — 1983–4 — 51.0 — 1984–5 — 52.0 — 1985–6 — 52.4 — Notes
(a) No figure is available because of the distortions created by emergency conditions.
(b) No figure for 1980–81 was published as in 1974–75 the industry changed from a 6-year forecast period to a 7-year one.