To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what recent progress his Department has made towards its target for the energy efficiency per square metre of its estate; and if he will make a statement. (266866)

BERR are continuing to work towards achieving the energy efficiency targets expressed in the Sustainable Operation of the Government Estate (SOGE) framework. Our main strategy has been to gain efficiencies through a reduction in the physical size of its estate and the number of buildings occupied. As a result the whole BERR estate has been reduced by 58 per cent. and its overall carbon footprint by 26 per cent. since the baseline year of 1999-2000.

As we are working the remaining buildings harder, through better space optimisation, energy use has risen slightly. We are addressing this through improved utilisation of building management systems; installing new environmental and lighting controls during 2008-09, together with introduction in January 2009 of new automated monitoring and targeting systems, which will give significant savings over the next few years.

Furthermore, in mid-February 2009, BERR installed two sets of photovoltaic arrays on the roof of its 1 Victoria Street HQ building and carried out a thermal imaging study. We are currently evaluating the latter study to see if there are additional means of improving the performance of the HQ building.

BERR's HQ estate recently received the Carbon Trust Standard certification.

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much (a) electricity, (b) gas and (c) other fuel was used by (i) his Department and (ii) each of its agencies since the establishment of his Department; and how much was used by each of the regional development agencies in each of the last 10 years. (267342)

Since the inception of BERR in June 2007, the Department has used the following amounts of electricity and gas on its HQ estate up to the end of February 2009.

I have approached the chief executives of the Insolvency Service and Companies House and they will respond to you directly.

The following tables contain details of the amounts spent by each regional development agency on electricity, gas and other fuels during the past 10 years. Where there is a blank entry (—), figures are unavailable and would incur disproportionate cost to produce. The RDAs do not record units used.

The LDA does not record fuel expenditure in the manner requested. As a result, it would be unable to break down its energy spend into separate components without incurring disproportionate cost. Figures for 2001-02 to 2004-05 are not available as during this period fuel bills were included within a general service charge.

One North East does not record fuel expenditure in the manner requested. As a result, it would be unable to break down its energy spend into separate components without incurring disproportionate cost.

SWRDA does not record fuel expenditure in the manner requested. As a result, it would be unable to break down its energy spend into separate components without incurring disproportionate cost.

Letter from Gareth Jones, dated 13 April 2009:

I am replying on behalf of Companies House to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 25 March 2009, UIN 267342, to the Minister of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

Since the inception of BERR in 2007, Companies House has used the following amounts of fuel:

Letter from Stephen Speed, dated 13 April 2009:

The Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has asked me to reply to you directly on behalf of The Insolvency Service how much (a) electricity, (b) gas and (c) other fuel was used by (i) his Department and (ii) each of its agencies since the inception of his Department; and how much was used by each of the regional development agencies in each of the last 10 years.

The Insolvency Service has consumed the following energy to date since the formation of BERR in June 2007: