To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps have been taken by (a) his Department and (b) its agencies to improve the thermal efficiency of their buildings in the last 12 months. (266755)

In addition to complying with all applicable building regulations, Ministry of Defence construction projects are mandated, through the Office of Government Commerce Common Minimum Standards and the Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate Mandates, to undertake building research establishment environmental assessment method (BREEAM) or defence related environmental assessment methodology (DREAM) environmental performance assessments. DREAM assessments in particular encourage performance over and above that of building regulations in the area of energy efficiency.

Of those assessments completed since DREAM was launched in March 2006, 75 per cent. have achieved a greater than 10 per cent. improvement against the building regulations and six per cent. have achieved a greater than 20 per cent. improvement.

In addition there is a Departmental commitment that from 2008 all new service families accommodation in the UK will meet level 3 of the code for sustainable homes.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent progress his Department has made towards the target of increasing its energy efficiency per square metre of its Estate by 15 per cent. by 2010, relative to 1999-2000 levels; and if he will make a statement. (266883)

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) did not report energy per square metre before 2004.

In 2006-07 following improvements in data quality, the MOD recalculated the building floor area used to measure performance against the Sustainable Development in the Government target of 15 per cent.

The latest assessment of Government’s performance against these targets was published by the Sustainable Development Commission on 12 December 2008:

http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/sdig2008/

These show the MOD reduced energy consumption by per square meter by 10 per cent. since 2006-07.