Mr. Robert AinsworthTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what assistance his Department is giving to the reduction of emissions from engines.
§ Mr. McLoughlinThe Department is currently supporting some early work on fuel cells which, if successful, could find application in the transport market in the long term. The Department is also considering with other Government Departments a possible programme of field trials for selected vans and buses to assess, among other things, their emissions performance when using a number of alternative road transport fuels.
Mr. Robert AinsworthTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what study he has undertaken between the relative emissions between diesel engines and petrol engines with catalytic converters in normal urban driving conditions.
§ Mr. McLoughlinThe Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Transport have jointly commissioned the energy technology support unit to quantify the implications of a further switch from petrol to diesel in the United Kingdom passenger car market in terms of energy use, emissions and refinery investment. The Departments are currently consulting industry representatives on technical aspects of this work. The completed study will be published in the next few months.