Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Department for Education and Skills (DfES)
1. Tim Byles, Martin Lipson and I gave
evidence to the Education and Skills Select Committee on 6 December
2006. There are two issues on which the Committee asked me to
write with further information.
IMPACT OF
THE ACTION
PLAN ON
SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT
2. Mr David Chaytor MP asked about the impact
of the "action plan on sustainable procurement" on guidelines
over the range of sustainability issues for schools. Our understanding
is that this is a reference to the recommendations set out in
the report to Government (June 2006) of the Sustainable Procurement
Task Force: Procuring the Future. The Task Force is an
independent body, led by Sir Neville Simms, and the report includes
a range of recommendations for central Government and the wider
public sector, including recommendation (A5.4)—Treasury
and DfES must work with Building Schools for the Future programme
to ensure that it is meeting high sustainability standards and
to learn lessons for other capital projects.
3. The Government is preparing a formal
response to the Task Force report and recommendations, which will
include its own Sustainable Procurement Action Plan. The response
will be published shortly. Until then, though there is no formal
sustainable procurement action plan for government departments,
all departments (including DfES and HM Treasury) continue to work
on a range of measures to improve sustainable procurement throughout
the public sector, including Building Schools for the Future.
BREEAM SCHOOLS
4. Mr Gordon Marsden MP asked for details
of options for using BREEAM Schools to deliver carbon reductions
in schools. BREEAM Schools was developed specifically for schools
in 2005 and provides a tool which sets robust, achievable and
cost-effective environmental targets for new buildings and refurbishment
projects. Its development was guided by a sector advisory group
comprising designers, local authority representatives, non-government
organisations and DfES officials.
5. The Department considers that a BREEAM
for Schools rating of "very good" is a challenging but
achievable target within existing resources. DfES has therefore
set as a condition of government funding, "very good"
as the minimum standard. All new schools will meet this, compared
with 17% of government buildings which met their target BREEAM
rating during 2005 as reported in "Procuring the Future".
6. However, we recognise that there is more
to do if schools are to achieve carbon neutrality and we are investigating
a range of options such as:
— Raising the BREEAM Schools threshold;
— Mandating within BREEAM Schools by
giving, for example, greater emphasis to targets relating to energy
use; and
— Introducing a separate scheme which
focuses on energy use.
7. There are some significant barriers to
raising the BREEAM Schools hurdle. It has not been established
with certainty that a BREEAM Schools rating of "excellent"
is technically possible or value for money for all school buildings.
In order to gain a better understanding of the challenges presented
by raising the target to "excellent", we are funding
three demonstration sustainability projects. These schools have
committed to achieve a BREEAM Schools rating of "excellent",
and will include further measures to improve sustainability. Two
of the schools are aiming to be "carbon neutral" with
respect to energy use.
8. In addition to raising the target BREEAM
Schools rating, we also have the option to introduce complementary
standards on specific issues such as energy use/carbon emissions.
In support of this approach we have commissioned a team of designers
to research the options for reducing carbon emissions for a sample
of schools types in different locations. This will examine the
technical possibilities for reducing school carbon emissions by
varying amounts, together with associated costs and benefits.
9. These are significant issue for Ministers
to consider. Ministers expect to be able to give a clear lead
on these matters when the Comprehensive Spending Review Capital
programmes are announced in late 2007.
Sally Brooks, Divisional Manager, Schools Capital
(Policy and Delivery)
January 2007
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