To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their strategy to reduce the use of energy in (a) the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and (b) the Ministry of Justice. [HL3033]

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has an ongoing programme of initiatives in place to deliver significant sustainability improvements across its estate.

Defra has implemented a carbon management programme which has enabled it to develop a systematic approach to monitoring and managing its carbon emissions. The department is successfully improving the energy efficiency of its estate by implementing a range of technologies, initiatives and operational improvements. Initiatives which have already been implemented include: voltage regulation technologies, energy efficiency lighting, insulation and draught proofing, biomass, combined heat and power plants and automatic metering (AMR) of utilities. Thermal imaging surveys have also been undertaken at a number of sites and the results will form a programme of works to improve the thermal efficiency of the buildings.

All new build and refurbishment projects undergo sustainability reviews and are designed to achieve BREEAM excellent as standard. Recent projects such as the new office at Alnwick, which is designed to operate as carbon neutral, demonstrate Defra's commitment to deliver sustainable solutions in the design, build and operation of all its developments.

The Ministry of Justice is taking a number of actions to reduce the use of energy and these have been published in the OGC delivery plan at www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/Delivery_Plan_Update_ Dec08.pdf.