Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, what assessment he has made of the capacity of the Law Officers' Departments buildings for the micro-generation of renewable energy; and if he will make a statement.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) commissioned Sustainability Surveys in respect of its major energy consuming sites in 2011. The surveys considered: photovoltaics, solar water heating, wind turbines, biomass boilers, ground source heating, micro-hydro and combined heat and power. Apart from photovoltaics and solar water heating none of the technologies was considered suitable for further investigation.

In the case of the sites where photovoltaics and solar water heating were considered technically achievable the economic investment and payback period was not considered viable.

The CPS also responded to a central government request for sites potentially suitable for solar panels in 2014 and no sites were considered viable.

The remaining Law Officers Departments have not made any such assessments. All of them are currently tenants based in a small number of leased properties and do not have any direct responsibility for implementing micro-generation systems within these buildings.