HC Deb 05 June 1990 vol 173 cc408-9W
Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will make it his policy to require all companies contracted to provide goods and services to his Department to conduct a regular energy audit of their operations.

Mr. Peter Morrison

Contractors will continue to be chosen on the basis of competitive tenders, and their efficient use of energy will lead to lower unit costs.

Mr. Dobson

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will give the number of dedicated energy managers in his Department and the number of person years devoted to energy management in the latest year.

Mr. Wakeham

An energy manager in the Department's headquarters building, together with local energy managers in five other premises in which the Department is an occupant, expects to devote around one third of a man year of effort to energy management.

Mr. Dobson

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will give the number of energy audits carried out in his Department in the last five years and for each audit a statement of its main conclusions.

Mr. Wakeham

An energy audit was not considered cost-effective in our former headquarters, because the Department had been under notice to quit since before 1985.

Mr. Dobson

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will give for each year from 1978 the energy consumption, broken down by fuel, of the buildings occupied by his Department, expressing the figures in(a) cash terms, (b) 1978–79 money terms and (c) units of consumption for electricity in kilowatt hours, gas in therms, liquid fuel in litres and solid fuel in tonnes.

Mr. Wakeham

I regret that information on energy consumption in buildings occupied by my Department over this period is not available. Under new arrangements for direct billing this information will be available from 1990–91 onwards.

Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy when his Department last conducted a full energy audit of its own building stock.

Mr. Peter Morrison

The Department regularly monitors energy usage in its new headquarters building, of which it is the sole occupier and into which it moved in September last year. The building has an up-to-date electronic building energy management system. The Department is discussing with the Department of the Environment (Property Holdings) the potential for its commissioning energy management contracts aimed at improving overall energy efficiency on the civil estate, including my Department's headquarters building. These would include full energy audits. The Department has appointed energy managers to monitor energy consumption in all the other buildings on the common user estate where it is an occupant.

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