§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent studies he has(a) conducted and (b) commissioned into the exceptional heating costs of different categories of disabled persons. [14366]
§ Maria Eagle[holding answer 13 November 2001]: The Department itself has not conducted or commissioned studies of this sort. For England the main source of information on fuel poverty is the five-yearly English House Condition Survey (ECHS). The survey does not look at the different categories of disabled persons. The latest edition for which figures on fuel poverty are available relates to 1996. Figures for households in fuel poverty in 1998 have been produced from the 1998 Energy Follow Up Survey to the English House Condition Survey, although the analysis available from this survey is more limited than that from the ECHS.
The UK Poverty Strategy, published by the Government in February 2001, aims to seek an end to fuel poverty and the first priority is to ensure that by 2010 no vulnerable household in the UK need risk ill health due to a cold home.