§ Mr. Bradfordasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he is satisfied with the mechanism for the recovery of debt relating to electricity and gas in Northern Ireland; and if this mechanism enables him to state how much of the actual debt incurred in each of the years 1966 to 1977 has been recovered to date.
§ Mr. Giles Shaw[pursuant to his reply, 14 May 1980, c. 546]: A variety of methods are used to recover debts owed for electricity and gas in Northern Ireland. Their range and effectiveness are kept under regular review and new arrangements for the recovery of money owed by consumers on supplementary benefit were announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on 21 March It is not possible, without disproportionate expenditure, to determine the amount of the debt actually incurred in a particular year, nor, therefore, how much of that has been recovered.
§ Mr. Bradfordasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) what is the total amount of accumulated debt for each of the years from 1969 to 1979 in respect of electricity in Northern Ireland;
(2) what is the total amount of actual debt incurred for each of the years 1969 to 1979 in respect of electricity in Northern Ireland.
§ Mr. Giles Shaw[pursuant to his reply, 14 May 1980, c. 546]: To avoid confusion with normal fluctuation in outstanding payments to the fuel undertakings it has been the convention to define the amount of debt outstanding at particular periods as that owed by consumers who are in arrears for two or more quarters. On that basis the amount of accumulated debt owed to the Northern Ireland Electricity Service in each of the financial years 1974–75 to 1979–80 was as follows:
86W
£ million Year ending 31 March Amount outstanding Net change 1975 4.1 N.A. 1976 5.6 +1.5 1977 8.3 +2.7 1978 12.5 +4.2 1979 11.9 (—0.6) 1980 11.7 (—0.2) Information is not available on a comparable basis for the earlier years.
Information about the actual debt incurred by electricity consumers in particular years could not be provided without examination of individual consumer records, which would involve disproportionate expenditure. However, the net change in the accumulated debt to the Northern Ireland Electricity Service in each of the years for which the information is available has been indicated.
§ Mr. Bradfordasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is the total amount of accumulated debt for each of the years 1969 to 1979 in respect of gas in Northern Ireland;
(2) what is the total amount of actual debt incurred for each of the years 1969 to 1979 in respect of gas in Northern Ireland.
§ Mr. Giles Shaw[pursuant to his reply, 14 May 1980, c. 546]: To avoid confusion with normal fluctuations in outstanding payments to fuel undertakings it has been the convention to define the amount of debt outstanding at particular periods as that owed by consumers who are in arrears for two or more quarters. On that basis the amount of accumulated debt owed to the Belfast city council gas department in each of the financial years 1975–76 to 1979–80 was as follows:—
£ million Year ending 31 March Amount outstanding Net change 1976 2.1 N.A. 1977 2.7 +0.6 1978 3.2 +0.5 1979 3.3 +0.1 1980 3.3 0.0 Information on a comparable basis is not available for earlier years, nor in relation to other gas undertakings in Northern Ireland.
87WInformation about the actual debt incurred by gas consumers in particular years could not be provided without examination of individual consumer records, which would involve disproportionate expenditure. However, the net change in the accumulated debt to the Belfast city council gas department in each of the years for which the information is available has been indicated.