§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many vehicles his Department estimates will be using liquefied petroleum gas fuel by 2008; and what estimate he has made of the contribution these vehicles will make to a reduction in road transport emissions. [172569]
§ Mr. DarlingThe Government directly support the use of more environmentally friendly fuels through reduced fuel duty rates. These fuels include liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), compressed or liquefied natural gas, biodiesel and low and zero sulphur petrol and diesel.
Further, the Government encourage the use of cleaner vehicles through reduced vehicle excise duty rates based on vehicle emissions (which are zero for electric vehicles) and reduced levels of company car tax for low emission vehicles. Purchase grants are available under the PowerShift programme for hybrid, electric, LPG and natural gas vehicles. In addition, hydrogen vehicles are supported under the New Vehicle Technology Fund and the fitting of emission abatement equipment is incentivised through the CleanUp programme.
According to the LPG Association, there are currently some 107,000 LPG vehicles licensed in the UK—an increase from around 39,000 LPG vehicles in 2000. We expect this number to continue to rise, but we have no firm estimates for vehicle numbers in 2008.
Good quality LPG vehicles can offer a number of environmental advantages, particularly where they are used in place of diesel vehicles in urban areas. The precise nature of these benefits will depend on where the vehicles are used and what type of vehicles they are replacing and as such we have no firm estimates for emissions reductions resulting from the use of LPG vehicles in 2008.