1. What steps he is taking to encourage the take-up of low-emission vehicles. (36293)

Eighty-four per cent. of journeys are undertaken by car. Tackling car-produced carbon by fostering and supporting the decarbonisation of motoring is therefore one of the Government’s key transport priorities. The spending review announced provision of more than £400 million for measures to promote the uptake of ultra-low carbon vehicle technologies. Those include support for consumer incentives, development of recharging infrastructure and a programme of research and development.

My local pub, the Battlesteads inn, which is award winning and excellent, has an electric car-charging point. It is one of the few in Northumberland. The problem is that the ability to recharge is dependent on the north-east’s sole recharging point. When will the system be made nationwide?

As my hon. Friend knows, the north-east is one of the areas that has been selected for support in the plugged-in places pilot, so there will be a roll-out of further charging infrastructure in the north-east. The Government are currently considering the options for a national roll-out of charging infrastructure and how we mandate that. We will publish our decisions in due course.

Is the Secretary of State aware of two interesting companies in my constituency? First, ITM Power produces and develops hydrogen-powered cars, with the ability to produce hydrogen in domestic units at home. Secondly, Magnatec attaches electric motors to diesel-powered vehicles, increasing efficiency by 30%. That system has been running on buses in Denver for more than 10 years, but British buses do not seem interested in taking it up. What steps is the Secretary of State taking with the Department to encourage those firms? Would he like to visit the constituency?

In fact, yesterday, I met a firm developing innovative battery technology in Aberdeen. We are always pleased to talk to companies that are developing low-emission vehicle technology in the UK. We have deliberately made the incentives technology-neutral so that people developing new and innovative systems can get the benefit of them.

One of the quickest and cheapest ways in which to reduce vehicle emissions is through more economical driving habits, but I understand that the take-up by businesses of smarter driving training courses has been disappointing. Will the Secretary of State explore the strategies that are open to the Department to increase take-up of those courses?

The Under-Secretary of State for Transport, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Norman Baker) is looking precisely at how to increase take-up of the smarter driving training courses.

As the Secretary of State knows, the Department turned down a joint private and public consortium bid, including Cardiff and Bristol councils and the Energy Saving Trust, for a network of electric car-charging points between both cities on the M4. Will he explain to the people of south Wales why he turned down that bid?

The number of bids exceeded the available resources for the second wave of plugged-in places pilot schemes. All the bids were evaluated, and those that represented the greatest value for money were allowed to proceed. The promoters of the unsuccessful bids have been debriefed by the team in the Department, so they will have a detailed understanding of why their bid, on this occasion, failed. I hope that they will be encouraged to resubmit a bid in the next wave.