To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what representations he has received from industry on the (a) costs and (b) expected dates of retrofitting carbon capture and storage to new build coal fired power stations. (174685)

The Government have undertaken two formal consultations with industry on these matters. These are the 2005 Carbon Abatement Technology (CAT) Strategy and the 2006 HMT consultation on the barriers to CCS, the responses of which can be found on the HMT website:

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./media/7/3/carbon_2_dr_freund.02.pdf

In addition, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has also held informal consultations on this matter with industry leading up to, and following, the launch on 19 November 2007 of the UK’s CCS demonstration competition.