§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport. Local Government and the Regions (1) if he will place in the Library details of the calculation on which the fuel duty rebate levels on(a) Cngas, (b) Lpgas, (c) biodiesels. (d) LNG,(e) E10 bioethanol blends and (f) E85 bioethanol blends is based; [49453]
(2) what level of fuel duty rebate has been granted to the road fuels (a) Cngas, (b) Lpgas, (c) biodiesels, (d) LNG, (e) E10 bioethanol blends and (f) E85 bioethanol blends. [49451]
§ Mr. ByersMy Department provides grant to the operators of local bus services in the form of fuel duty rebate. Decisions on the rate of grant paid for use of specific types of fuel are taken in the light of the duty levied on the fuel and wider policy considerations. An information pack explaining the fuel duty rebate scheme has been placed in the Library.
Operators of eligible services whose vehicles are gas powered (CNG, LPG, or LNG) receive rebate of all the excise duty, which is currently levied at 9 pence per kilogram.
No operator has so far claimed rebate for use of biodiesel and a rebate rate has not been set in advance of a claim.
E10 and E85 bioethanol blends are used as an additive to, or substitute for, petrol and are classed by the Customs and Excise as fuel substitutes with duty levied at the rate appropriate to the fuel with which they are mixed or substitute for. Any bus operator using petrol which included these blends would therefore receive rebate at the appropriate petrol rate, currently 34.30 per litre.
§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (1) what Government incentives, in addition to public money, have been introduced to promote the use of(a) Cngas, (b) Lpgas, (c) biodiesels, (d) LNG, (e) E10 bioethanol blends and (f) E85 bioethanol blends; [49698]
(2) what the level of public funding is for the Powershift programme; [49695]
(3) what public money has been made available to encourage the use of (a) Cngas, (b) Lpgas, (c) biodiesels, (d) LNG, (e) E10 bioethanol blends and (f) E85 bioethanol blends in road transport. [49455]
(4) what advertising campaigns have been carried out as part of the Powershift programme; and what level of funding has been associated with them. [49696]
(5) what share of the funding for the Powershift programme is spent on promoting (a) Cngas, (b) Lpgas, (c) biodiesels, (d) LNG, (e) E10 bioethanol blends and (f) E85 bioethanol blends for transport. [49697]
805W
§ Mr. ByersThe Government has introduced a range of fiscal and other measures to promote the use of cleaner fuels, such as road fuel gases and biofuels, which offer environmental benefits.
The Powershift programme promotes and provides grants towards the cost of purchasing cleaner fuel vehicles running on LPG, natural gas and electricity. No E 10 or E85 blends are currently on sale in the UK. The Powershift budget for 2002–03 is £10 million, provided by my Department. This has recently been strengthened by an additional allocation of £1 million from the DTI. aimed at further raising awareness of LPG and increase the availability of good quality LPG vehicle conversions. particularly in rural areas.
The Government's CleanUp programme, complements Powershift, promotes and provides grants towards the conversion of existing vehicles to run on cleaner fuels including LPG and natural gas, and the fitting of emission abatement equipment. Its budget for 2002–03 is £10 million, of which around £8.5 million is likely to relate to clean fuel conversions. Additionally, the CleanUp programme will manage a further £7.5 million in 2002–03, as part of the Road Haulage Modernisation Fund announced by the Chancellor in the 2001 Budget and of which around £5.8 million will be for grants.
As announced in Budget 2001, the rate of fuel duty for road fuel gasses (natural gas and LPG) is at the low rate of 9 pence per kilogramme, and the Government indicated that there were would be no real terms duty increases until 2004 at the earliest. It was also announced that a new
Years 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 Total Number of grants 69 127 392 1172 1177 2937 Number of vehicles supported 378 748 2,262 4,545 4,940 14,110 Amount of grant paid £.1.043m £1.461m £3.352m £6.040m £5.595m £17.491m The latest figures from the LP Gas Association confirm that there are currently 1,106 LPG refuelling points in the UK, at the end of March 2001 there were 700 and at the end of March 2000 there were 365.
§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what proportion of road transport fuel is gas based. [49454]
§ Mr. Byers5,778 tonnes of road fuels gases were sold in 2001. For comparison approximately 37 million tonnes of petrol and diesel were sold in the UK in 2000.