Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will issue guidance to (a) local authorities and (b) fire and rescue authorities that they should implement a replacement programme to introduce LED lighting in their buildings.

My Department sets minimum standards in the Building Regulations for the energy efficiency of lighting when installed in new and existing buildings, but does not issue guidance on replacement programmes for lighting. The standards in the Building Regulations can be met by LEDs, but it is for local authorities and fire and rescue authorities to judge for themselves when replacement of existing systems will be practical and cost-effective. LED retrofit solutions and key considerations are covered in the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Code of Practice for the Application of LED Lighting Systems, published earlier this year.

Although LEDs are improving all the time, they are not at the moment necessarily any more energy efficient than modern fluorescent luminaires - or better when comparing things like light quality, reliability, maintainability and lifetime costs - to justify wholesale replacement of existing lighting systems. The main advantage of LEDs over fluorescent luminaires is that they do not contain any mercury and, when compared with compact fluorescent lamps, reach full brightness immediately.

DECC has policy responsibility for the Ecodesign Directive, which includes requirements for the efficiency of lamps that can be placed on the EU market. By 2016, only LEDs and the most efficient halogen lamps will be able to meet the standards.