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Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

Answer

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the running costs of the Department were in each year since 1997, broken down by (a) electricity, (b) water, (c) gas, (d) telephones, (e) mobile telephones and (f) televisions. [206682] Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was established in May 2002. Running costs incurred since that date are in the following table. VAT is included where this is appropriate. (a) Electricity costs incurred by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the years 2002-03 and 2003-04 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. £000 2002-03 2003-04 Office of the Deputy Prime Minister1 941 886 QEII Conference Centre 229 330 Total 1,170 1,216 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 Including Fire Service College and PINS The increase in electrical consumption is due mostly to a rise in occupational density throughout the estate, which has resulted in increased air conditioning systems and IT equipment use in the buildings. The energy used in the QEII Conference Centre is dependent on the commercial activities undertaken. Recent refurbishment of the air-conditioning systems should improve the Centre's overall efficiency. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is investigating options for reducing energy consumption across the estate. Surveys of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's main office buildings are being undertaken and action plans for fuel reduction produced. (b) Water and sewage costs incurred by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the years 2002-03 and 2003-04 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. £000 2002-03 2003-04 Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 29 32 Agencies 107 121 Total 136 153 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. (c) Gas costs incurred by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the years 2002-03 and 2003-04 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. £000 2002-03 2003-04 Office of the Deputy Prime Minister1 357 406 QEII Conference Centre 43 62 Total 400 468 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 Including agencies. Increased use of the two gas-fired Combined Heat and Power installations in the HQ estate has also resulted in an increased use of gas. Heating fuel costs have risen by 15 per cent., mainly due to a 9 per cent. increase in gas prices. (d) Telephony costs incurred by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the years 2002-03 and 2003-04 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. £000 2002-03 2003-04 Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 1,073 1,647 Agencies N/a 138 Total 1,073 1,785 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Information on telephony costs in 2002/03 for Agencies of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is not available. For part (e) , information on mobile phones used by officials of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. For part (f) , in 2003-04, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister spent £19,800 on cable and satellite subscriptions. No figures are available for 2002-03. This answer excludes the buildings occupied by Government Offices, who carry out functions on behalf of 10 Government Departments.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

206682; 430 c1581-3W

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Electricity Government departments Natural gas Mobile phones Water Utilities Television Telephones Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Operating costs

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk