INTRODUCTION
1. In July 2005 we announced our decision to establish
a sub-committee to carry out an inquiry to follow on from our
predecessor Committee's Report Buying Time for Forests: Timber
Trade and Public Procurement, published in July 2002.[1]
This concluded, amongst other things, that:
Not only does the Government have the responsibility
to lead by example in environmentally sound timber procurement
practices; it also has, through its buying power, the potential
to change the nature of timber markets through the procurement
decisions that it makes.
This was a conclusion very much echoed on a more
general level three years later in that Committee's more recent
inquiry into Sustainable Public Procurement published in April
2005.[2]
2. Since the publication of the original report
there have been several developments of interest to us. The UK
Government published in January 2004 revised guidance for Government
departments on how to comply with the requirement to purchase
only legal, and where possible, sustainable timber. In addition,
a Central Point of Expertise on Timber has been set up within
the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA),
tasked with providing advice to procurers and suppliers on purchasing
legal and sustainable timber. In the international arena the EU
put forward a proposal for a Forest Law, Governance and Trade
(FLEGT) Action Plan in 2002, which includes provision for setting
up a licensing scheme for all timber imported from specific partner
countries into the EU with the aim of guaranteeing its legality.
There has also been a more recent statement from the G8 in July
2005, under the Presidency of the UK Government, setting out the
commitment of its members to tackling illegal logging.
3. In the course of the inquiry the Sub-Committee,
chaired by Joan Walley MP, received 25 memoranda from a range
of organisations, for which we are grateful. The Sub-Committee
also took oral evidence from Elliot Morley MP, Secretary of State
for Climate Change and the Environment, and from Neil Scotland,
Forestry Policy Adviser to the Directorate General Development
of the European Commission, and from a range of other organisations.
We are grateful to all those who have contributed to our inquiry.
1 EAC, Buying Time for Forests: Timber Trade and Public
Procurement, HC 792-I,24 July 2002 Back
2
EAC, Sustainable Public Procurement , HC 266, 13 April
2005 Back
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