Question

To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, what steps the House authorities are taking to reduce (a) temperature settings on the estate and (b) energy use via other means.

(a) Where possible Parliament follows Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) guidelines for temperature standards in offices to ensure a comfortable working environment. When rooms have temperature controls for the user, there is a small threshold of which temperature can be raised or lowered to ensure rooms are not over cooled/heated.

There are many differing levels of temperature control across the parliamentary estate, with some areas having no temperature control at all.

We review the setpoints for heating and cooling regularly.

(b) Parliamentary authorities take energy efficiency very seriously as part of its commitment to reducing its environmental impacts. Parliament has reduced its electricity consumption by 16.8% and gas consumption by 25.3% since 2008/09.

The Building Management System has been upgraded recently to enable better control of the building services, such as resetting manual temperature changes every night to a CIBSE recommended setpoint.

The Environmental Sustainability Team monitor and report performance energy and water use monthly, and report annually in the sustainability section of the Commission Annual Report.