§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr. David Jamieson)Last July, the Department for Transport, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Treasury jointly published the Government's Powering Future Vehicles strategy for promoting the development, introduction and take-up of clean, low-carbon vehicles and fuels in the UK, and ensuring the full involvement of the UK's automotive industries in the new technologies. The strategy set out the Government's objective that the UK should lead the global shift to the low-carbon economy, building competitive advantage for our automotive industries. Today the Low Carbon Ministerial Group, charged with oversight of the implementation of the Powering Future Vehicles strategy, published its first annual report, setting out the significant progress made towards the strategy's targets for low-carbon cars and buses and the other objectives A set. The strategy emphasised that a speedy and productive shift to low-carbon vehicles and fuels needed to involve not only Government, but the other stakeholders—the auto and fuel industries, environmental groups, and transport users.
The Government therefore welcomes the setting up of a Low Carbon Vehicles Partnership, bringing together all those with a stake in and commitment to the shift in the UK's transport economy—with the involvement of industry leaders and others at the most senior level. The report has been published on the DfT website, and copies have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.