§ Mr. HarveyTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will publish a table showing the number of meetings held, the secretarial and advisory arrangements, the budgeted and actual expenditure and the subjects of any reports and submissions produced by the fuel cell advisory panel in each of the last three years.
§ Mr. Ian TaylorThe fuel cell advisory panel was established in April 1992 and has met on a total of eight occasions, with three meetings in 1992–93 and four in 1993–94. Secretarial support is provided by the energy technology support unit—ETSU—which manages my Department's advanced fuel cell research and development programme, on which the panel advises. This advice, which includes the assessment of individual proposals for funding, is given through discussion at the panel's meetings, the minutes of which are not published 651W for reasons of commercial confidentiality. As an advisory body the panel does not disburse funds itself and membership is unpaid.
The administrative costs of the panel are met from the programme management budget and published each year in a report prepared by the Cabinet Office. A copy of the latest edition, "Public Bodies 1993", is available in the Library of the House. DTI expenditure on projects within the programme amounted to £0.36 million in 1992–93 and £0.83 million in 1993–94. The budget for 1994–95 is £1 million.
The total value of projects supported by the programme to date is £14.7 million, for a DTI contribution, including future commitments, of £2.6 million. Two technical strategies, for solid polymer and solid oxide fuel cells, prepared by ETSU and endorsed by the panel, were published by ETSU this summer and I have placed copies in the Library of the House. A wide range of information on projects within the programme is also published by ETSU.