Written question asked by Laurence Robertson (Conservative) on Friday, 26 November 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 2 December 2004. It was answered by Mike O'Brien (Labour) on Thursday, 2 December 2004 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Dept of Trade and Industry

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of the coal generating industry about fitting clean-coal technology; and if she will make a statement. - (Holding answer 30 November 2004).

Answer: Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent discussions she has had with representatives of the coal generating industry about fitting clean-coal technology; and if she will make a statement. [200737] Mr. Mike O'Brien: [holding answer 30 November 2004]: Although Ministers have not recently had any formal discussions with the coal-fired power generation industry about cleaner coal technologies, DTI officials have been in frequent touch with the companies in this sector and Ministers have had broader meetings which included reference to FGD. In particular representatives from E.ON and RWE sit on the Advisory Committee for Carbon Abatement Technologies which meets about every two months. We are currently developing a Carbon Abatement Technology Strategy for Fossil Fuel Power Generation which will include support for new cleaner coal technologies. We plan to publish this early next year.

Secondary information