Energy and Climate Change written question – answered at on 15 June 2009.
Grant Shapps
Shadow Minister (Communities and Local Government) (Housing and Planning), Co-Chair, Conservative Party
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of implications for his Department's policies of the definition of zero-carbon used in proposed new buildings standards approved by the European Parliament.
Joan Ruddock
Minister of State (Department of Energy and Climate Change)
holding answer
An assessment has not been made of the amendments recently proposed by the European Parliament to the recast of the energy performance of buildings directive. The European Commission is considering the amendments and will adopt a position on them shortly. We will assess the implications of the position adopted by the Commission at that stage.
We are currently preparing a consultation document on the recast of the energy performance of buildings directive which is scheduled for publication in July 2009.
Yes2 people think so
No1 person thinks not
Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The European Commission is the politically independent institution that represents and upholds the interests of the EU as a whole. It is the driving force within the EU’s institutional system: it proposes legislation, policies and programmes of action and it is responsible for implementing the decisions of Parliament and the Council.
Like the Parliament and Council, the European Commission was set up in the 1950s under the EU’s founding treaties.
Parliamentary questions are conventionally answered within seven days of being lodged, or on a particular day for so-called "Named Day" questions. (Source: House of Commons Information Office, Factsheet P1, "Parliamentary Questions")
A holding answer may be issued by a Minister if, for whatever reason, a substantive or final answer to the question cannot be provided in the time available.
