Supplementary memorandum submitted by
Elliot Morley MP, Minister of State for Climate Change and Environment,
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
At the EAC Inquiry on 30 November 2005, where
I gave oral evidence on Sustainable Procurement Policy, the Committee
requested a note on the UK's position in Europe on Green Public
Procurement (Q77 from Mr. Peter Ainsworth, Chairman of the EAC,
refers).
The European Commission has funded a study aiming
to measure and assess Green Public Procurement practices in the
EU, which the UK has actively supported. The study focuses on
Environmental criteria in purchasing; therefore, it looks at neither
the social aspect nor sustainable procurement. The "green"
focus reflects the environmental drivers for this work at European
level, where procurement is identified as a tool for contributing
to a number of EU policy areas, including environmental technologies
and integrated product policy.
This study will conclude in April. The interim
results identified a group of 7 EU Member States with notably
better GPP performance than the other 18. These were, Sweden,
Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Finland and the UK. However,
all Member States, including the top 7, have significant room
for improvement.
It is important to make clear that the EU Commission's
study is neither a follow up, nor can it be compared to the ICLEI
study (2003)[6],
whose results the Chairman referred to in his question, as the
measurements and the methodology are different. The EU Commission's
study used a more comprehensive methodology, analysing tenders
published in the Official Journal of the EU as well as questionnaire
based information. Also, all 25 EU Member States were studied,
rather than the EU 15.
However, in general terms, the EU Commission's
study does suggest that the UK remains "above average"
but with significant scope for improvement. Sweden, Austria and
Denmark are identified as front-runners in both studies. The study's
conclusions warned against using single overall numbers or percentages
to rate a country's performance. Good and bad practice exists
in all Member States and U-us is something that will be researched
further during the last phase.
The UK aims to continue working with the European
Commission and other Member States to benchmark GPP across the
EU on a consistent basis in order to assess progress in the future.
13 December 2005
6 1 The ICLEI 2003 study in Green Public Procurement
looked at the share of [EU] Administrations that include environmental
criteria for more than 50% of purchases [in the public domain].
ICLEI warned that their results should be treated with care, as
a disproportionately high number of public purchasing authorities
said they apply green criteria when tendering. Back
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