Examintaion of Witnesses (Questions 216-219)
MS STEPHANIE
HILBORNE, MR
PAUL WILKINSON,
DR MIKE
CLARKE AND
MR CHRIS
CORRIGAN
27 MARCH 2006
Q216 Mr Betts: Good afternoon and welcome.
First of all, can I give apologies from Phyllis Starkey MP, who
is the Chair of the Committee, who has had to be away on important
business in her constituency this afternoon, but the Committee
is still in session and we welcome you to it. For the sake of
our records, could you identify yourselves, please?
Mr Wilkinson: Paul Wilkinson,
Wildlife Trusts, Head of Conservation Policy for the East of England.
Ms Hilborne: Stephanie Hilborne,
the Wildlife Trusts' Chief Executive.
Dr Clarke: Mike Clarke, RSPB Operations
Director, responsible for the English regions.
Mr Corrigan: Chris Corrigan, Regional
Director for the RSPB in South East England and also a Member
of the South East England Regional Assembly.
Mr Betts: Thank you. John Cummings is
going to start off for us.
Q217 John Cummings: My question is
directed to the RSPB. In your evidence, you tell the Committee
that you believe there is a lack of consistent leadership on sustainable
development across the English regions. Could you give the Committee
some examples of good leadership models at regional level?
Dr Clarke: Yes. Two recent examples
would be in the north-east of England and in the East Midlands,
where, in both cases, a very clear framework is being produced
within what were the Regional Sustainable Development Frameworks,
now they are becoming called Integrated Regional Strategies, and
these are providing the rationale for then a series of strategies
which come out of that for various limbs of regional delivery.
Q218 John Cummings: Is the Government
Office in the North East failing, in relation to good leadership
models in that area?
Dr Clarke: No. Clearly, one of
the issues at the moment is that we have responsibilities spread
across three principal institutions, as you will be only too well
aware. We see that part of the issue which comes out of that,
effectively with dispersed responsibility, is the need to bring
together, in one clear central place, a strong framework. That
we feel is one of the key challenges at the moment, how you bring
that together, and indeed how you relate that to national level
guidance and, indeed, from a sustainable development point of
view, the UK Sustainable Development Strategy. We would hope,
I think, that is one of the issues the Committee will be focused
on particularly.
Q219 John Cummings: Do you know of
any good leadership models in Government Offices throughout the
country?
Dr Clarke: I think the north-east
of England example we mentioned is one where they have taken quite
a strong stance in encouraging the integration, as we have just
referred to.
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