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<p>My officials are liaising with their colleagues across government to attempt to
assess the behavioural effects of the Display Energy Certificate regime. Included
with my Department's consultation on the future of the Display Energy Certificate
regime, was a call for evidence, seeking from across the public sector information
relating to the use and usefulness of Display Energy Certificates. We will assess
the information provided through the discussions across Government, and in response
to the call for evidence, to form a view of the behavioural effects of the current
regime and of possible changes to it. <br><br>The possible changes set out in the
consultation included a range of options, from doing nothing; through making some
changes to reduce the amount of gold-plating in the current Display Energy Certificate
regime; to replacing the requirement to obtain and display a Display Energy Certificate
with one to obtain and display an Energy Performance Certificate, adding for public
buildings the requirement to obtain an Energy Performance Certificate to the requirement
to display them where they have been obtained that already exists for commercial buildings
over 500m2. We will consider the responses to the consultation before forming a view
as to which of the options it contained should be implemented. This will be set out
in the government response to the consultation, which will be published in due course.<br><br>There
is no requirement in the Display Energy Certificate regime to implement any recommendations
made, although it may be prudent for cost-effective recommendations to be implemented
where possible. <br><br>All Government departments have targets set under the Greening
Government commitments, progress towards which must be regularly reported to the Home
Affairs (Greening Government Commitments) sub-Committee.<br><br>Furthermore, the State
of the Estate report, which covers the civil estate, is published annually by the
Cabinet Office and reports progress against targets for energy performance. The State
of the Estate Report 2013 reported that cross-government greenhouse gas emissions
were, on average, 14% less in 2012/13 than in 2009/10. This represents a slight improvement
on the 12% achieved the previous year and that all departments reported improvements
against the 2009/10 baseline. Reduced energy consumption across the government estate
is estimated to have saved the taxpayer £44 million since 2009/10.</p>
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