To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what the budget for the Energy Efficiency Office will be in 1992–93; and what was the comparable figure for 1979–80.

The budget for the Energy Efficiency Office in 1992–93 will be £59 million, an increase of 40 per cent. on this year's budget. The comparable figure for expenditure in 1979–80 was £2·4 million.

What action is being taken by South Wales Electricity and the other companies on that most important aspect of energy efficiency?

Under the terms of their licences, the newly privatised regional electricity companies must take steps to promote the efficient use of their fuels. In addition, the regulators of both the electricity and gas industries are examining with the industries scope for further funding of energy efficiency measures, funded in part under the price formula. Since privatisation there has been a transformation in the attitude and work of those energy companies towards promoting energy efficiency as well as selling their product.

Does the Minister agree that no matter what progress is made in energy efficiency—in Wales or in the west country, for example—it could all come to nothing if the Government press ahead and force British Gas to start up a new company for the transportation of gas through its pipelines? It would mean that British Gas would put a mileage rate on the transportation of gas so that regions such as Wales will suffer from higher gas prices, which will offset anything that we may do to achieve efficiency.

Those are matters for the regulators of the industry concerned, who have an explicit duty to promote competition in the industries and to safeguard the interests of consumers. Before the industries were privatised, there was no comparable safeguard for the consumer. It has come about entirely as a result of privatisation.