§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what estimate he has made of the number and percentage of(a) cars, (b) buses and (c) lorries which (i) run on LPG or similar clean fuels and (ii) are adapted to run on conventional and clean fuels. [28579]
§ Mr. JamiesonThere are estimated to be around 50,000 LPG cars in the UK. Motorists are converting to LPG at an increasing rate, with the number expected to increase by about 25,000 over the next year, prompted by the Government grants available, and the fact that low-cost LPG fuel is now available in all areas of the country.
DVLA data provide more disaggregated information on alternative fuel use as follows:
Vehicle class Dedicated gas Percentage of total fleet Bi-fuel Percentage of total fleet Cars/LGVs 1,375 0.005 23,622 0.01 Buses 74 0.08 66 0.07 Trucks 202 0.05 25 0.006 But this understates the number of vehicles because not all conversions to alternative fuelling are notified to DVLA.
DVLA statistics do not distinguish between liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas vehicles. However, cars and light commercial vehicles tend to use LPG, while heavier vehicles use natural gas.
Although DVLA does not keep statistics on the number of battery electric cars, my Department estimates that
Housing benefit and council tax benefit best value performance indicators Indicator1 Average Top quartile Median Bottom quartile 76 Security—whether authority has written and pro-active strategy for combating fraud and error (Yes/No) 89% Yes n/a n/a n/a 77 Average cost of handling HB/CTB claim £82.39 £102.00 £75.25 £51.00 78a Average time for processing new claims 50 days 35 days 45 days 60 days 78b Average time for processing notifications for changes of circumstance 23 days 10 days 18 days 31 days 78c Percentage of renewal claims processed on time 71 90 75 57 79a Percentage of case for which the benefit calculation was accurate 93 97 95 92 79b The Percentage of recoverable overpayments (excluding council tax benefit) that were recovered in the year 95 70 61 48 1 Numbers refer to the BVPIs published in Best Value and Audit Commission Performance Indicators for 2000–01 available on www.local-regions/dtlr.gov.uk//bestvalue/indicators/indicatorsindex/htm Note:
Details of the final outturn performance data for 2000–01 will be available shortly on the same website.
1040Wthere are approximately 400 of these in the UK. In addition, DVLA statistics show that there are 484 hybrid petrol/electric cars.