§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what percentage of road journeys in the UK were made by vehicles powered by biodiesel and alternatively fuelled vehicles in 2001. [72820]
§ Mr. JamiesonIt is not possible to provide figures in the form requested; traffic data collected by the Department for Transport (DfT) is collected according to vehicle type not propulsion type. Calculating the proportion of journeys for cars powered by alternative fuels such as biodiesel is extremely difficult as they are almost always capable of running on pure conventional fuels.
964WThe DfT publishes figures for the total number of vehicles registered according to propulsion type based on DVLA records. As table 1 shows, in 2001, of a total of 29,747,100 vehicles licensed in the UK, 46,700 were alternatively powered, representing 0.16 per cent. of total registrations. This figures does not include vehicles capable of being solely or partially powered by biofuels for the reason outlined earlier.
Table 1. Breakdown of vehicles licensed in the UK in 200] according to propulsion type Thousand Number Petrol 23,219.0 Diesel 6,481.5 Petrol/gas 24.0 Gas/gas Bifuel/Gas-diesel 6.0 Electric and hybrid electric 15.1 Steam/fuel cells 1.6 All 29,747.1 Further information is available from the DtT's traffic statistics website at: http://www.transtat.dft.gov.uk.
But this understates the number of alternatively-fuelled vehicles because not all conversions to alternative fuelling are notified to DVLA. There are currently estimated to be over 100,000 alternatively fuelled vehicles in the UK, the vast majority of which are LPG cars.