To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (1) what research he has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the maturity and practicality of carbon capture and storage technologies; (174684)

The Department has published two reports on carbon capture and storage: ‘The Review of Carbon Capture and Storage in the UK’ and ‘The Carbon Abatement Technology (CAT) Strategy for Fossil Fuel Use’, provide the results in these areas. Both reports can be found in the House of Commons Library and also on the BERR website at:

http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/coal/cfft/co2capture/review.pdf

and

http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/coal/cfft/cct/pub/catreportlinked.pdf.

The supporting analysis underpinning the carbon abatement technology strategy which can be found at

http://www.berr.gov.uk/energv/coal/cfft/cct/pub/pdfs/r301.pdf

provides the work to date on predicting the impact of deploying this technology. Further work on this area is planned as part of an update of the CAT strategy.

Additionally, Poyry Ltd carried out a study in June 2006 on the North sea CCS pipeline infrastructure. The study, commissioned by BERR, on behalf of the UK, Norway and the North sea basin task force, has now been completed and is also available on the BERR web site at:

http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/sources/sustainable/carbon-abatement-tech/ccs/nsbtf/page42482.html

The Department also commissioned engineers PB Power to assess proposed CCS projects in the UK and to advise the Government on whether to support a CCS demonstration. This work is commercially confidential and is not in the public domain.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform whether carbon capture and storage technology will be eligible for capital allowances. (175431)

I have been asked to reply.

HMT consulted on the barriers to carbon capture and storage (CCS) deployment in 2006 and the Government announced in the Energy review that the next logical step would be a full-scale demonstration project. A competition to design and build one of the first-ever commercial CCS demonstration projects was launched by the Prime Minister on the 19 November.

All taxes and reliefs are kept under review and any changes are announced by the Chancellor as part of the Budget process.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform whether carbon capture and storage technology will be eligible for capital grants. (175432)

The Government have a £35 million programme for the demonstration of carbon abatement technologies, including carbon capture and storage (CCS). It is also possible that part of the funding for the CCS demonstration project will be in the form of capital grants.