PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament

1063W
Written Answers
26 MARCH 2013
Written Answers
1064W
In addition to forecast underspend against final plans,
since Budget 2012 the Department surrendered £253 million
of RDEL at the supplementary estimates. Of this, £73
million is available for future years through the Budget
Exchange mechanism, £189 million was switched from
the Department’s resource budget to the capital budget
and an offsetting amount of £9 million was transferred
to DECC from other Government Departments.
The Department will set out its spending for the year
in detail in its annual accounts in the usual way.
Radioactive Waste
Ms Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy
and Climate Change what assessment he has made of
the selection of a site for the storage of radioactive
waste from existing and former nuclear sites; and if he
will make a statement. [149683]
Mr Hayes: The UK’s higher activity radioactive waste
is currently held in safe and secure storage facilities at
various nuclear sites around the country. Government
set out its approach to implementing a geological disposal
facility (GDF) to dispose of the UK’s higher activity
radioactive waste in the 2008 White Paper “Managing
Radioactive Waste Safely: A Framework for Implementing
Geological Disposal”.
The Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS)
process is based on the principles of voluntarism and
partnership. It is a staged process, one in which potential
host communities ’decide to participate’ (without
commitment) in site identification and assessment for a
potential GDF. To date, no sites have been selected. The
Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) programme
is a very long-term one, and Government remains confident
that a suitable site for a GDF will be found.
The current invitation remains open for volunteer
communities to express an interest, without commitment,
in the MRWS process. At the same time, Government
has been working to learn the lessons of the recent
experience gained in west Cumbria—as the Secretary of
State for Energy and Climate Change affirmed in his
written ministerial statement earlier today, will launch
in May a public call for evidence on the site selection
process of the MRWS programme. The evidence provided
in response to this call will inform a public consultation
later this year on how this process might be improved.
With regards to the recent experience in west Cumbria,
both Copeland and Allerdale borough councils decided
to proceed to site identification and assessment, however,
Cumbria county council did not. Since Government
had given a specific commitment in west Cumbria that
there should be agreement at both borough and county
level before progressing to the next stage, this decision
brought the existing site selection process to an end in
west Cumbria.
Said Business School
Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for
Energy and Climate Change what the purpose was of
his Department’s payment of £25,000 to Oxford Said
Business School Ltd on 16 January 2013. [149979]
Gregory Barker: This payment was for a DECC
director’s place on cohort 3 of the Major Projects
Leadership Academy (MPLA).
SMP Commercial
Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for
Energy and Climate Change what the purpose was of
his Department’s payment of £326,782.54 to SMP
Commercial in January 2013. [149980]
Gregory Barker: “SMP Commercial” is a business
area within the Department of Energy and Climate
Change. The expenditure relates to payments to suppliers
supporting the delivery of the Smart Metering
Implementation Programme’s competitions for the Data
and Communications Company.
Telephone Services
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for
Energy and Climate Change for each of the principal
access numbers operated by (a) his Department and
(b) the agencies for which he is responsible, what
revenue has been retained by (i) the telephone provider
for that line and (ii) his Department in each of the last
three years. [149993]
Gregory Barker: For the numbers operated by this
Department and its agencies, the Department has taken
zero revenue in the last three years.
Any revenue which may be retained by the telephone
provider is not specifically known to the Department at
this time.
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for
Energy and Climate Change which telephone lines are
operated by (a) his Department and (b) the agencies
for which he is responsible for public enquiries or other
services; what the (i) principal access number and (ii)
telephone service provider is for each number; and
which such lines (A) are free to the caller and (B) may
incur a charge to the caller. [150016]
Gregory Barker: This Department and its agencies
operate the following numbers:
Department Public Enquiry Unit/Press Office—0300 060 4000
(operated by Level 3 as a standard non-geographic number at a
national rate to the caller).
Department Out of Hours emergency inquiries—020 7215
3505 (operated by BT as a local rate charge to the caller).
Energy Saving Scotland—0800 512 012 (operated by BT and
free to BT landline users).
The Coal Authority (subsidence and mining report inquiries)—0845
762 6848 (operated by BT as a standard non-geographic number
charged at up to 10p per minute).
Wind Power
Nadine Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for
Energy and Climate Change what estimate his
Department has made of the (a) level of carbon
emissions resulting from the construction of each
onshore wind turbine and (b) total amount of energy
produced by such turbines annually. [149008]
Gregory Barker: The carbon footprint for onshore
wind electricity production ranges between 8-20gCO 2 eq/
kWh, taking into account emissions incurred during
the manufacture, construction, maintenance, and
decommissioning phases:
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/post/postpn_383-
carbon-footprint-electricity-generation.pdf