HC Deb 11 June 2003 vol 406 cc959-61W
Mr. Roger Williams

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what targets his Department has for improving energy efficiency; and how he intends to achieve these targets. [116649]

Mr. Pearson

The Climate Change Programme, published by the then Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions in November 2000, was laid before the Northern Ireland Assembly. The energy efficiency targets it contains were included in the Northern Ireland Executive's Programme for Government and also adopted by the Northern Ireland Office for the areas within its control. These targets are being pursued by:(a) programmes of training in energy awareness for key staff; (b) regular investment in projects to improve the energy efficiency of, and reduce emissions from, buildings occupied by Departments; and (c) regular monitoring of buildings' energy performance.

Mr. Yeo

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement, in relation to his Department and each agency and non-departmental public body for which his Department is responsible, on(a) the amount of energy consumed, (b) spending on (i) energy and (ii) energy efficiency measures, (c) the amount saved through energy efficiency measures and (d) energy policy in each of the last five years. [108863]

Mr. Paul Murphy

The Northern Ireland Office and the Northern Ireland Administration do not hold the information in the format requested.

With the establishment of the Northern Ireland Executive, all the Northern Ireland Departments, their agencies and many other public bodies were reorganised. Furthermore, the basis on which information is collected was changed from April 2000. The combined effect of these changes means that it is difficult to make meaningful comparisons across the period as a whole.

The information available is given in the following tables.

Investment in energy efficiency includes support from the Central Energy Efficiency Fund, a measure unique to Northern Ireland. Between 1997–98 and 2001–02, in addition to departmental investment, the Fund has invested £12.7 million, producing an estimated cumulative saving for that period of £16.4 million.

Departments and other public bodies in Northern Ireland have been actively seeking to improve their energy efficiency for many years, and are aware of the targets for improvement contained in the Climate Change Programme.

PQ 1000/03
Northern Ireland Departments—Energy Consumption (kWh)—1997–2000
Department 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 3-year total
DOE 218,792,842 234,805,178 343,617,604 797,215,624
NIO 2 2 2 2
Prison Service 73,869,698 82,317,445 74,246,430 230,433,573
Probation Board 1,073,261 899,348 1,540,705 3,513,314
RUC Estate Services 96,563,720 95,532,284 99,029,833 291,125,837
Total 1,810,378,128 1,828,406,276 1,878,912,226 5,517,696,630

Northern Ireland Departments—Energy Consumption (kWh)—2000–2002
Department 2000–01 2001–02 2-year total
DARD 10,168,997 11,569,966 21,738,963
Agricultural Research Institute of NI 1,301,334 1,329,036 2,630,370
DCAL3
Libraries 5,964,224 4,577,739 10,541,963
Museums 8,779,037 8,345,822 17,124,859
DE1
Education and Library Bds 446,963,427 385,658,801 832,622,228
DETI 3,207,072 2,995,316 6,202,388
DFP 10,053,611 9,326,485 19,380,096
DHFETE/DEL1
Universities 148,775,528 147,115,033 295,890,561
Further Education Colleges 47,737,238 47,142,103 94,879,341
DHSS and PS 728,632,911 695,895,376 1,424,528,287
Core Buildings 7,586,115 7,156,556 14,742,671
Fire Authority for NI 13,805,387 13,909,716 27,715,103
DOE 9,141,076 7,590,212 16,731,288
DRD 16,542,982 17,085,341 33,628,323
Roads Service 99,245,787 102,136,164 201,381,951
Water Service 221,433,423 236,514,571 457,947,994
DSD 23,526,414 23,429,749 46,956,163
NI Housing Executive 11,292,658 10,547,529 21,840,187
Total—NI Departments 1,814,157,221 1,732,325,515 3,546,482,736
NIO 4,001,502 4,285,481 8,286,983
Prison Service 54,098,541 46,861,152 100,959,693
Probation Board 1,034,087 1,611,872 2,645,959
Royal Ulster Constabulary/Police Service for NI Estate Services 101,046,077 100,412,788 201,458,865
Total—NIO 160,180,207 153,171,293 313,351,500
Overall total 1,974,337,428 1,885,496,808 3,859,834,236
1 DFP did not have any buildings of its own and occupied buildings managed by DOE as part of the Office Estate.
2 With the exception of Hillsborough Castle, all energy consumed in NIO buildings is managed through the Construction Service, formerly part of DoE but now with DFP. Until 2000, electricity was supplied to the Stormont Estate by NIE. The cost was then apportioned to the user departments according to their space occupancy but no kWh figures were ever produced. The information for Hillsborough Castle and the amount of oil burned at Stormont House is available but the inclusion of these figures in the table would be misleading.

* Figures for DCAL, DE and DHFETE/DEL are not currently available.