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Mr. Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham): Was it not particularly disappointing that the comprehensive spending review attached no environmental requirements to a rolling spending programme? The CSR was sold to us on the basis that Departments that did not come up to scratch would not receive additional money for each of the three years. It provided an ideal opportunity to attach an environmental requirement, but was it not a lost opportunity?
Mr. Horam: My hon. Friend will recall that the public service agreements that followed the CSR did not include an adequate reference to the environment in their objectives and aims. The Minister may wish to recall his own words to the Select Committee, where we are always glad to see him. Page 109 of the report states:
- "Mr. Meacher told the Committee that the Green Ministers are committed to doing regular collective reviews of the quality and scope of environmental appraisals in their departments. He explained that he would expect departments to draw up a list, revised every six months or so, of important new policies which have significant environmental impacts where environmental appraisals have been done. The Green Ministers Committee would then discuss them and share experience.
The Committee welcomes the intention of the Green Ministers Committee to review experience of policy appraisal in the departments and to spread best practice and experience of appraisals that have not gone so well and we look forward to receiving copies of these reviews in accordance with the Minister's undertaking to this Committee."
I can warn the Minister that our annual review of the greening of Government process will be set in train shortly. We have sent out letters calling for evidence, including a letter to the Minister that sets out the remit of this year's analysis. We shall concentrate heavily on the performance of the Green Ministers Committee and on environmental appraisal.
Ms Joan Walley (Stoke-on-Trent, North):
I congratulate the hon. Member for Orpington (Mr. Horam) on securing a debate on the Select Committee on Environmental Audit. The Committee is cross-departmental, and its scrutiny of the Government's work will be important. I pay tribute to the members of the Committee, who have turned out in force today. I remind the House of the context of this debate. At our meeting only yesterday, we discussed the living planet index--compiled by the World Wide Fund for Nature--which reminded us that, in the past 25 years, the world has lost 30 per cent. of its natural resources.
We have just heard that my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister was not here during the Budget debate last week, but exploring a coral reef was equally important as it gave him the opportunity to see at first hand just how fragile our planet is--if we need reminding of that fact. It is crucial that we take account of all those issues and that we do not rely on emergency crisis talks after the event to ensure that degradation is put right.
As the hon. Member for Orpington said, sustainable development cannot be a bolt-on extra. I also think that that message should be framed as the overarching theme of our Committee. We need to put that at the heart of government. As the House heard, that is what the Prime Minister said that we would do when he addressed the United Nations and it is what the Government are doing. The real question for Governments and for the House is whether we are doing that as well and as quickly as we can, and in time to prevent further degradation of our planet. That is why this morning's debate is so important. It concerns the nuts and bolts--the institutional mechanisms and systems and the appraisals of what we need. Much of our debate will be technical, but, if we do not get those mechanisms and the framework right, we simple will not be able to put the environment at the heart of our Budget, of policy making and of green government.
The nature of the issue means that we can take only one step at a time--we can only make so much progress--but what may seem impossible one day can suddenly become possible the next. In our last pre-Budget report, we thought that the Government had failed. One week after the latest Budget, we feel that they have made huge steps forward, with 22 new measures to assist the environment.
The fact that the Select Committee on Environmental Audit has been on the heels of the Government has helped us to advance the whole procedure. We have done that with the Budget and, through this debate, we need to do it for the entire machinery of government. That is why this debate is so important. We should have an annual debate on sustainable development. We need a formal parliamentary occasion when we can scrutinise what the Government are doing through the Environment Committee at Cabinet level and the Committee of Green Ministers. I expected all the members of the Environmental Audit Committee to be present for this debate, but I also expected to see the Green Minister from each Department on the Front Bench. If they were here, it would send a message to the House and to the nation that they are taking the agenda forward.
Even though the Government have temporarily rejected the idea of an annual formal debate in Parliament, I hope
that we will have such debates so that we can have accountability and can measure whether the targets that have been set are the right ones and are being achieved.
Our most important task now is to set out how we can achieve sustainable development and ensure that the Committee of Green Ministers takes collective responsibility for the environmental appraisal system rather than the substance of individual policies. I am pleased that the Government agreed with that approach in their response to our report and said that new and revised policies should include an assessment of implications for the environment. Will my right hon. Friend the Minister tell us how that is being done, where the system is and how Parliament is to be made aware of the substance of it--for example, within specific Departments?
The Local Government Bill is going through Parliament. What has been done by way of an environmental appraisal of that Bill? The Energy Efficiency Bill, which would require environmental and energy efficiency advice to be provided for someone purchasing a home, has been introduced, enabling us to focus on energy efficiency. Conservative Members blocked the Energy Conservation (Housing) Bill, which would have followed up other home energy conservation legislation, and increased the energy efficiency of homes owned by housing associations. I understand that parliamentary counsel has drawn up amendments to that effect, for the Association for the Conservation of Energy, which could have been put at the heart of the Local Government Bill. Have we had an environmental appraisal of that Bill? If so, could the measures in the two energy efficiency Bills be included? That would demonstrate that the Government are ensuring at every opportunity that they take account of the need to put environmental concerns at the heart of government and not to treat them as a bolt-on extra.
Major constitutional changes are about to take place, and they will have clear implications for environmental policy in Scotland and Wales and the policy of the new regional development agencies. Again, there has been concern that sustainable development has not been put at the heart of those agencies and that somehow or other, despite the guidance issued, economic arguments are at the heart. Those issues are important.
Mr. Gareth R. Thomas (Harrow, West):
Before my hon. Friend moves too far from the local government argument, may I remind her that we stood for Parliament on a manifesto that talked of the need for a new duty for local authorities to promote the economic, social and--crucially--the environmental well-being of their areas to be part of local government reform? Does she agree that it would be useful if our right hon. Friend the Minister would confirm that that new duty is to be a part of the draft legislation on local government which we understand is due to be published shortly?
Ms Walley:
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that issue. I hope that my right hon. Friend the Minister will refer to it. I understand that there will shortly be an announcement in the House on future local government legislation. It is imperative that a duty to take account of sustainable development is set at the heart of such a Bill. Perhaps my right hon. Friend would deal also with Local
There is a fear and suspicion that environmental appraisals are not carried out within and across Departments as we would wish. That was evident six weeks ago, when I initiated a debate in the House on genetically modified foods. During that debate and the public debate that followed, it became clear that the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is involved in the issue because of its labelling policy and that the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions is involved in planting and trials and deciding whether it is safe--on environmental grounds--toplant genetically modified crops commercially or experimentally. There are also implications in terms of Government scientific advice on health matters and in terms of scrutiny of European policy. There has to be some mechanism at the heart of government to square all those issues and strike the proper balance between them in the course of decision making.
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