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Hospitals: Energy

Volume 497: debated on Wednesday 14 October 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what recent estimate he has made of the number of A-rated circulator pumps which are installed in NHS hospitals; (291788)

(2) what energy efficiency standards his Department has stipulated for circulator pumps in its guidance on private finance initiative projects.

The Department does not collect data centrally on the number of A-rated circulator pumps installed in national health service hospitals in England.

All capital development schemes, whether private finance initiative or publicly funded projects, are expected to comply with energy efficiency standards of 35 to 55 gigajoules per one hundred metres squared (Gj/100m2), and also with BREEAM Healthcare requirements (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) to ensure healthcare facilities are constructed with sustainability and energy efficiency in mind. The Department provides guidance to assist the NHS and their partners in meeting this criteria.

This information is contained in the guidance document “Health Technical Memorandum 07-02: Encode—making energy work in healthcare”, a copy of which has been placed in the Library, and which provides general energy efficiency standards within health-care facilities. This guidance covers new build and refurbishment as well as the energy management of existing operational facilities and provides advice about pumps, fans and boilers. Capital project teams will make their own decisions about specific items of equipment, such as circulator pumps, to ensure they are appropriate to meet the needs, circumstances and efficiency of their particular schemes.