APPENDIX 22
Memorandum from the Green Minister, HM
Treasury
A. ROLE OF
THE GREEN
MINISTER WITHIN
THE DEPARTMENT
1. What are the Green Minister's specific responsibilities
and objectives with regard to:
(a) considering the environmental impacts
of policies and programmes of the Department, and
(b) reviewing the Department's management
and operations?
As the Treasury's Green Minister, the Financial
Secretary is committed to "greening" the Department's
operations, to integrating environmental considerations into other
policy areas, and to improving the economic analysis underpinning
the Government's environmental initiatives.
2. What are the arrangements within the Department
for providing the Green Minister with advice on the environmental
impacts of the Department's policies and operations?
— What resources are dedicated to supporting
the Green Minister in her role?
On the policy side, the Financial Secretary
is supported by six staff in the Treasury's Environment Team,
whose role is to advise on the environmental aspects of other
policy areas in the Treasury's responsibility, as well as providing
economics advice about the Government's specific policy on the
environment. In the Tax Policy Team a further four staff work
in a dedicated branch dealing with economic instruments and the
environment. Among other teams whose subject area has a strong
environmental component, such as those shadowing transport, planning
and nuclear safety, the Department estimates that the equivalent
of up to three full-time staff are employed entirely on advising
Ministers on environmental issues, though the environment impinges
to a greater or lesser degree on all aspects of the Treasury's
work, and most staff at one time or another will find themselves
considering environmental questions in the course of their duties.
A committee of officials representing all wings of the Department
meets once a month to receive updates on developments on the environment,
compare practice, and consider cross-cutting issues.
On operations, one member of staff is wholly
employed on Energy Management. Most staff in the Department's
Accommodation Services Team spend some proportion of their time
on green issues.
3. Does the Green Minister have specific responsibilities
to report on the Department's environmental performance, within
the Department, within Government as a whole, and to Parliament?
Within the Department, the Financial Secretary
is responsible to the Chancellor on the Treasury's environmental
performance. She speaks for the Treasury on environmental issues
within Government and attends meetings of Green Ministers for
the Department. As the Treasury's Green Minister, the Financial
Secretary will generally answer Parliamentary Questions on environmental
matters on the Chancellor's behalf, and has appeared for the Department
before the Environmental Audit Committee.
4. The description of the individual role of
a Green Minister, quoted above, specifies the environmental impact
of policies and programmes. What consideration is being given
within the Department to policies and programmes in terms of the
wider concept of sustainable development and the balance between
issues of economy, environment and social equity?
The Treasury's principal aim is to raise the
rate of sustainable growth, and achieve rising prosperity, through
creating economic and employment opportunities for all. Implicit
in this goal is the idea of balancing the need for economic growth
and longer-term sustainability, while looking after the demands
of social justice. The Treasury evaluates all its policies and
programmes according to their contribution to this overarching
aim.
Just as the Treasury strives to make sure that
economic policy is sustainable and fair, in line with the concept
of sustainable development it is also concerned to look at the
economic and distributional impact of environmental policy. The
Treasury works closely with the Department of the Environment,
Transport and the Regions at the policy formation stage to try
to make sure that the welfare benefits of new environmental measures
outweigh the distributional and economic costs.
The Treasury acts on the principle that when
the goals of economic growth and protection of the environment
conflict, neither should automatically override the other, but
that decisions about which route to go down should be taken on
the balance of the costs and benefits.
B. ENVIRONMENTAL
STRATEGY
5. Does the Department have an environmental
strategy? Does it address both the Department's policy responsibilities
and its operations? Is it publicly available?
The Treasury has an Environmental Policy and
Strategy Document. This is available on request to members of
the public. The Strategy mainly covers the Department's operations,
though it also explains the Department's purchasing policy. The
Treasury's strategy on the environment in the context of its key
policy responsibility, taxation, was set out in the Chancellor's
Statement of Intent on Environmental Taxes in the July Budget
Financial Statement and Budget Report.
(a) Within the Department who has responsibility
for carrying forward and implementing the Department's environmental
strategy?
The Treasury's Environmental Strategy is ultimately
the responsibility of the Permanent Secretary, reporting to the
Financial Secretary.
(b) What level of resources are dedicated
to this task?
Sir Terence Burns is supported in this responsibility
by three staff working on the Strategy part-time.
6. Does the strategy how explicitly the extent
to which the Department is bound by or committed to actions due
to international commitments, EC or national law?
The Strategy's first paragraph sets out the
context in this way.
7. What objectives and targets has the Department
adopted under:
(a) its individual environmental strategy;
(b) to meet Government-wide environmentally-related
targets (in particular in relation to energy efficiency)?
Under its own environmental Strategy the Treasury
has adopted, and achieved, objectives among others to phase out
all hylon fire extinguishers; to reduce the use of hazardous chemicals
to the very minimum; to cease to use ozone depleting substances
where possible; and to review and introduce controlled toilet
flushing to conserve water.
The Treasury had a 15 per cent efficiency target
under the Government's five-year campaign to March 1996.
8. Has the Department set a target for minimising
its solid waste, and if so what is that target?
The Treasury has set a target to reduce waste
by 10 per cent from March 1997 to March 1999.
9. Does the Department have a policy to raise
awareness of its environmental strategy, targets and efforts to
address the environmental impacts of its policies and programmes:
(a) within the Department;
(b) amongst Agencies and NDPBs sponsored
by the Department;
The Treasury's Environmental Strategy itself
is brought to the attention of all staff via the office information
system.
Included in the Treasury's Environmental Strategy
is a commitment to maintain publicity campaigns to increase staff
awareness of particular environmental issues.
Articles and notices have been run on: recycling
schemes and achievements; energy awareness; a "Bag It and
Bin It" campaign; and the "Going for Green" campaign.
These have been made available to staff via the Accommodation
Services bulletin; the in-house staff journal; and by the electronic
message board; and to the wider public via the Treasury's website.
So far as raising awareness of its efforts to
address the environmental impacts of its programmes is concerned,
the Treasury will publish an environmental assessment of the next
full Budget.
10. Has the Department sought stakeholders'
views on its strategy and targets?
Staff and practitioners are consulted when the
Strategy document is reviewed.
11. In line with the commitment in the UK Strategy
for Sustainable Development (Cm. 2426, page 199) what conclusions
has the Department come to on the practicality of developing an
environmental management system for its housekeeping activities?
— What consideration has been given
to introducing a certified environmental management system such
as EGAS or IS 14001?
Progress on developing an environmental management
system and towards accreditation to EGAS or IS 140001 was necessarily
delayed while the Department decided whether to continue with
the PFI project to redevelop its Great George Street site, which
would have involved most Treasury staff moving to a decant building
while refurbishment was carried out. Now that a decision has been
reached to stay in the Great George Street building, the Department
is actively considering how to take these matters forward.
The Treasury is represented on a new Inter-departmental
Working Group on Environmental Management Systems, the first meeting
of which is due to be held on 20 March 1998.
12. How frequently does the Department review
and report on its performance in relation to its strategy? Are
such reports publicly available?
The Environmental Policy and Strategy Document
is reviewed and performance reports updated annually. The Strategy
is available to the public on request. The Treasury summarises
key points on its environmental performance in its Departmental
Annual Report.
13. What arrangements has the Department made
for the education and training of staff in environmental issues?
The Treasury runs campaigns to increase staff
awareness of environmental issues as outlined in answer to Question
9 above.
C. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
14. Do the Department's aims and objectives
incorporate a commitment to sustainable development or the Government's
UK Sustainable Development Strategy of 1994?
The Treasury's principal aim is to raise the
rate of sustainable growth, and achieve rising prosperity,
through creating economic and employment opportunities for all.
The Treasury's aims do not contain a specific commitment to the
1994 Sustainable Development Strategy, which was produced by the
previous Administration. The present Government is currently consulting
on a new Strategy, which is expected to be published later this
year.
15. What arrangements has the Department made
for the education and training of staff in sustainable development
issues?
Depending on the requirements of their post,
nearly all policy staff in the Treasury undertake training in
basic microeconomics. The courses introduce staff to the concept
of environmental and other externalities, and the need to take
these non-costed effects on board in policy appraisal.
D. THE DEPARTMENT'S
IMPACTS ON
THE ENVIRONMENT
16. Please list Departmental policies and programmes
which the Department considers to have significant impacts on
the environment and/or significant implications for sustainable
development.
Taking the concept in the sense outlined in
answer to Question 4 above, all the Treasury's policies
and programmes have implications for at least one of the tripedal
goals of sustainable development.
17. What impacts, beyond those associated with
administrative functions in typical offices, do the Department's
operations have on the environment?
The Treasury's operations do not have any significant
impacts on the environment beyond those associated with typical
office functions.
18. Has the Department identified environmental
liabilities, such as contamination from past activities, for which
it is responsible?
The Treasury has never been directly responsible
for any activities likely to give rise to an environmental liability
of this sort.
19. Has the Department reviewed the impacts
of its policies and operations on the environment and established
an environmental effects register? Is the register publicly available?
20. Has the Department sought stakeholders'
views on its review of its impacts on the environment and on the
completeness of its environmental effects register?
For the reasons outlined in answer to Questions
17 and 18 above, the Treasury has not felt the benefits would
justify the resource costs involved in establishing and maintaining
a formal environmental register.
E. POLICY APPRAISAL
21. Has the Department incorporated environmental
appraisal within its appraisals of all its policies and programmes
in accordance with the guidance issued by the Department [of the
Environment] in "Policy Appraisal and the Environment"
(1991)—that is, appraising policy options systematically,
exploring all impacts (both quantifiable impacts and non-quantifiable),
paying special attention to irreversible effects, taking on board
both scientific and public opinion? Has the Department summarised
its environmental appraisals? Have they been publicly available?
The Treasury has revised its own guidance on
policy appraisal (Appraisal and Evaluation In Central Government,
1997) to make clear that environmental effects need to be considered
alongside others in appraising and evaluating policies. This is
the central guidance which all those carrying out appraisals in
Government, and not just Treasury staff, are expected to follow.
Copies of the new version, which is available to the public, have
been circulated widely within Treasury and other Government Departments.
Treasury officials are working closely with Departments to ensure
that they are following the new procedures.
Forthcoming revisions to Government Accounting
will also make clear that good appraisal and evaluation, taking
account of environmental impacts, are an essential part of achieving
value for money. Government Accounting is the key guidance
to Departments on the regularity and propriety of Government expenditure
and receipts and how these should be used and accounted for. All
staff in the Treasury and other Departments and Non-Departmental
Public Bodies who are involved in finance and accounting should
have access to copies of the revised chapter and will be expected
to follow it. The National Audit Office monitors compliance with
the rules of Government Accounting in Departments.
Revenue Departments preparing submissions for
the Budget are required to comment on the environmental implications
of main proposals. The Treasury encourages other Departments to
do the same in their Budget submissions.
So far as making summaries of such appraisals
is concerned, Treasury Ministers will publish an environmental
assessment of the next full Budget.
22. In what circumstances does the Department
now consider it should undertake environmental appraisal of policies
or programmes? What arrangements does the Department have for
ensuring this approach is always applied? Are the Department's
environmental appraisals made publicly available?
The Treasury's own guidance on policy appraisal
says that appraisal should take a broad view of costs and benefits,
including indirect and longer term effects. Any significant costs
and benefits which cannot be valued in money terms should be recorded
and wherever possible quantified. Environmental effects are taken
as significant if the policy being evaluated would have more than
a negligible impact on the consumption of natural resources, the
production of waste or pollution, or would contribute to climate
change. The definition of "significant" is taken to
include effects which in local or particular cases may appear
unimportant but which cumulatively may have a major impact or
be irreversible over time. It is the role of Treasury Environment
Team, backed up at Ministerial level by the Financial Secretary,
to monitor that this is done in all cases.
Treasury Ministers have said that they will
publish an environmental assessment of the next full Budget.
23. What consideration has the Department given
to developing appraisal techniques that specifically address sustainable
development issues in the balance between economy, environment
and social equity?
The Department of the Environment, Transport
and the Regions has commissioned research into "sustainable
development" appraisal in context of working up new regional
planning guidance. The Treasury is in touch with this work and
awaits the results with interest "Ordinary" policy appraisal
techniques, though, if carried out properly, should cover all
significant economic, environmental and distributional issues.
24. Is the Department appraising the environmental
implications of recommendations flowing from its Comprehensive
Spending Review?
The Treasury's principal aim is to raise the
rate of sustainable growth, and achieve rising prosperity,
through creating economic and employment opportunities for all.
As outlined above, sustainable development is an important factor
in framing the Government's economic priorities. The comprehensive
spending review of the Treasury will report on how the Department's
organisation and resources are to be devoted to the achievement
of this principal aim and its other objectives.
F. GREENING THE
DEPARTMENT'S
OPERATIONS
25. What have been the Department's main achievements
in greening its operations since 1990?
Among the Treasury's main achievements in this
field since 1990 have been:
— the installation of anew roof membrane
to reduce heat loss;
— the installation of energy efficient
roof light;
— the installation of power factor
correction equipment;
— a reduction in fossil fuels under
the 15 per cent campaign to March 1996, achieved one year ahead
of target;
— the introduction of successful recycling
schemes for white paper, magazines, cardboard, cans and bottles,
photocopier and printer toner cartridges.
A few of the Treasury's other achievements are
listed in answer to Question 7.
26. Has the Department reflected its environmental
strategy in its specifications for goods and services?
Yes. Within the general policy of achieving
best value for money and European Union rules on non-discriminatory
purchasing, the Department will favour products which are made
in such a way as to minimise any adverse effect on the environment.
Also, the Department will avoid, wherever possible, the purchase
of goods which are manufactured or obtained in such a manner that
the resource used to produce those goods is put under threat,
for example certain hardwoods.
27. What contribution did the Department make
to the achievement of the Government-wide target of improving
energy efficiency in the Government estate by 15 per cent between
1991 and 1996?
The Treasury achieved a 5 per cent improvement
in its energy efficiency during the Government's campaign to March
1996.
G. DEPARTMENTAL AGENCIES,
NDPBS AND
OTHER SPONSORED
BODIES
28. Do the Executive Agencies and NDPBs sponsored
by the Department have environmental strategies consistent with
the Department's strategy?
29. Does the Department have arrangements to
ensure that the Executive Agencies and NDPBs undertake environmental
appraisals of their policies and programmes?
30. How do the Executive Agencies and NDPBs
report on their environmental impact and performance?
31. Has the Department reflected it environmental
strategy in terms and conditions for grants it awards?
The Treasury does not currently sponsor any
Executive Agencies or Non-Departmental Public Bodies.
February 1998
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