To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish details of the criteria used to reach the decision to increase electricity charges in Northern Ireland by 8 per cent. from 1 April.

The main criterion was that electricity charges should reflect the economic price of supply in Northern Ireland.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is the estimated level of profit likely to be produced by Northern Ireland Electricity in the period 1990–91 by the increase in charges to consumers from 1 April.

It is not practice to publish estimates by boards of public undertakings of their forecast performance.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether Her Majesty's Government and Northern Ireland Electricity have proposals to reduce electricity prices in Northern Ireland and to reduce the energy burden on industry and domestic consumers.

As regards electricity prices I refer the hon. Gentleman to the Secretary of State's answer to a question from the hon. Member for Newbury (Sir M. McNair-Wilson) on 13 March, Official Report, columns 139-40.On reducing the energy burden, the Government actively encourage consumers to use energy efficiently so as to reduce their energy costs.