Joint Supplementary memorandum submitted
by Mike Anderson, Director General, Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs, Willy Rickett, Director General, Department
for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and Jonathan Brearley,
Director, Office of Climate Change
We were grateful for the opportunity to attend
the Environmental Audit Committee's evidence session on 3 July.
We undertook to provide a supplementary memorandum.
First, on the specialist staff in the Office
of Climate Change (OCC), we can confirm that the OCC currently
has eleven economists currently working on its projects. This
reflects the nature of the projects the OCC has engaged in to
date, which has to a larger extent required this specialist analytical
support. The OCC also has staff with broader skills and experience
of—for example—environmental issues, the energy sector,
transport, legislation, programme management and energy efficiency
as well as staff on secondment from the Better Regulation Executive,
the Stern Team and the Department for International Development.
The future mix of skills in the OCC will depend on the nature
of future projects but we do and will continue to draw on the
high degree of specialist staff available across Government.
Second, in relation to the Committee's questions
on the Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) in Defra, we can confirm
that the staff compliment is 47, who cover both domestic and international
issues.
We would also like to counter the suggestion
in the Committee's questions that the SDU has not been effective.
In taking evidence ahead of its report on Governing the Future
(2nd report of session 2006-07), the Chairman of the Public Administration
Committee on 17 October 2006 stated that in relation to sustainable
development, "I don't think the Committee realised until
it looked abroad that we were world leaders in all this".[4]
Of course, the Government does consider improvements
to governance—and we would welcome the Committee's views
on this, as well as those of other select committees—but
it is important to recognise the SDU's achievements to date in
contributing to our international reputation. The SDU drove the
production of the UK Sustainable Development Strategy which is
widely regarded as setting an international benchmark; drove the
development of the new framework for Sustainable Development on
the Government estate with new targets; drove the production of
the Sustainable Procurement Action Plan; set in place the arrangements
to increase the capacity of the Sustainable Development Commission
and gave it a new watchdog function; as well as ensuring that
Sustainable Development is properly embedded in governance arrangements
at local and regional level.
All Government departments are now producing
their own Sustainable Development Action Plans. On the international
side, a number of Government departments have been involved in
achieving considerable progress with the five dialogue countries
(China, India, Mexico, South Africa and Brazil). This is all in
addition to the very significant progress that has been made in
developing policy in the four priority areas identified in the
Sustainable Development strategy, one of which is climate change.
Finally, the Committee asked about the Climate
Change Simplification Plan. Following its report The EU Emission
Trading Scheme—Lessons for the Future the Committee
wrote to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs, on 13 June requesting further details on various issues
including the Simplification Plan. A full reply to this request
will be with the Committee shortly.
Briefly, however, in keeping with Defra's better
regulation agenda, the department is undertaking a technical review
of major climate change instruments with a view to eliminating
avoidable duplication, simplifying existing regulations, and ensuring
that the regulatory burden (administrative and compliance) on
business is kept to a minimum.
The review, situated in Defra's Chief Economist's
Group and due to be completed in August, will primarily look at
the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), climate change agreements
(CCAs), and domestic trading mechanisms such as the proposed Carbon
Reduction Commitment (CRC); and specifically at areas of existing
and potential overlap between them. It will also consider key
overlaps with the administrative requirements of other measures
such as the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC)
policy, the Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD), Combined
Heat and Power (CHP) polices, the Renewables Obligation, and waste
policies with a view to suggesting some broad principles for dealing
with such overlaps. While unnecessary duplication from overlapping
policy instruments needs to be avoided, the review will also consider
whether alternative approaches carry their own regulatory disadvantages
for business.
July 2007
4 House of Commons Public Administration Committee,
Second Report of Session 2006-07, Q 411. Back
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