Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Question 42 (Annette Brooke): Response
to Greenpeace's note on unsustainable wood used in government
buildings
All central government departments and their
executive agencies are required to actively seek to purchase their
timber from legal and sustainable sources. The model condition
of their contract, which departments are advised to use, obliges
all government contractors to supply legally harvested timber
and to produce credible evidence of the source if requested. In
the absence of proof of legal harvesting of timber from high risk
countries it is reasonable to speculate that some or all of the
timber may have been illegally harvested.
In the seven years that the policy has been
operational Greenpeace has made public demonstrations of possible
non-compliance with this policy in three instances. The refurbishment
of 22 Whitehall, the new build Home Office HQ at Marsham Street
and the refurbishment of Admiralty Arch. Greenpeace has exposed
other instances of supplies to public sector bodies, including
the Palace of Westminster, of timber that may have been illegally
harvested but these bodies are no subject to the Government's
policy.
The Government has learnt valuable lessons from
each incident and has sought to tighten procedures and improve
guidance as a result. Non-compliances are most likely to occur
on building sites and are often due to a lack of understanding
within the supply chain. Mistakes are then compounded by lapses
in supervision. The Government and its appointed Central Point
of Expertise on Timber (CPET) is currently working with a number
of companies in the construction and facilities management sector
to develop measures for better management of sub-contractors in
their timber purchasing practices. In addition, CPET runs training
workshops that are freely available to public sector bodies and
their suppliers.
The Government is determined to minimise the
risk of illegally harvested timber inadvertently getting into
its supply chains. In this respect Greenpeace and other environmental
NGOs have made a very positive contribution to development of
the policy, as has the UK timber trade.
Question 70 (Mr Philip Dunne): Government Carbon
Offsetting Fund (GCOF) for air travel
The Government Carbon Offsetting Fund covers
all central government departments (apart from FCO, who operate
their own offsetting scheme for air travel). Defra is finalising
a contract with EEA Fund Management who will provide up to 305,000
Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) by the end of April 2009.
These CERs will be used to offset emissions attributable to official
and ministerial air travel between April 2006 and April 2009.
Each CER will cost £9.91, resulting in a total potential
cost of £3,022,550. The final actual cost is dependant on
the quantity of CO2 needing to be offset over the period of the
scheme, which cannot be determined until April 2009.
The cost of offsetting through the GCOF is met
by each participating member of the scheme. It is at their discretion
which budgets the payments come from. In that sense, there is
not an overarching budget established across government. However,
departments are aware of the likely financial commitment to the
scheme.
ESTIMATED DEPARTMENTAL
CONTRIBUTIONS
This was drawn up during preparation of the
scheme. It is important to be aware that actual and more up to
date data is now being reported by departments.
We also discussed during the evidence session
the potential cost of implementing the policy to make the central
government office estate carbon neutral by 2012. Based on estimated
carbon emissions data from offices during 2005/06, the total cost
of offsetting for the office estate (based on offsetting costing
£10 per tonne of carbon) is in the region of £7.3 million.
Clearly the final cost will depend on many factors.
Question 81 (Mr Philip Dunne): Defra organisational
chart on officials that advise on sustainable development in buildings
| Department | Amount of Carbon Dioxide pa/tonnes
| Number of CERs to be purchased (including full climate impact)
| GCOF Contribution at £10 per CER/£pa
|
| Department for International Development |
8,676 | 17,351 | 173,515
|
| Ministry of Defence | 7,583
| 15,166 | 151,659 |
| HMRC | 4,155 | 8,310
| 83,105 |
| Department for Trade and Industry | 3,404
| 6,808 | 68,075 |
| Home Office | 2,362 | 4,723
| 47,234 |
| Department of Work and Pensions | 1,997
| 3,993 | 39,930 |
| Treasury | 1,662 | 3,324
| 33,242 |
| Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
| 1,350 | 2,700 | 27,000
|
| Department of Health | 955 |
1,910 | 19,095 |
| Cabinet Office | 818 | 1,636
| 16,360 |
| Department for Transport | 520
| 1,039 | 10,391 |
| Office of the Deputy Prime Minister | 340
| 679 | 6,795 |
| Office of National Statistics | 190
| 381 | 3,809 |
| Department for Education and Skills | 148
| 296 | 2,960 |
| Law Officers Department CPS | 228
| 457 | 4,568 |
| DCMS | 151 | 302
| 3,023 |
| Law Officers Department SFO | 133
| 266 | 2,664 |
| Department for Constitutional Affairs | 139
| 279 | 2,785 |
| Office of Government Commerce | 111
| 222 | 2,216 |
| ECGD | 128 | 257
| 2,566 |
| CEFAS | 80 | 159
| 1,593 |
| LSLO | 30 | 60
| 603 |
| GAD | 23 | 46
| 457 |
| Debt Management Office | 4 |
8 | 83 |
| Total | 35,186
| 70,373 | 703,729
|
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This chart illustrates how we take forward work on delivering
sustainable development on the DEFRA estate. I have 28 people
working in estates division, a team of 8 will be in the Sustainable
Procurement and Operations Policy Programme, and 7.4 working on
procurement. It is important to note that Defra does not provide
specific policy advice on sustainable operations in buildings,
but rather helps to develop the outcomes central government should
be aspiring towards. Implementation is take forward by Departments
supported at the centre of government by OGC.
Question 89 (Mr Philip Dunne): Salix Finance
Salix Finance was set up in 2004 to provide finance to allow
the public sector to invest in energy saving measures. Its business
model is designed to help overcome the funding and accounting
barriers to investment confronted by the public sector.
Salix is an integral part of the UK's Climate Change Programme
and has been allocated Defra and Welsh Assembly funding of up
to £25 million between 2004 and 2008.
Salix provides funding of typically £250,000 to each
public sector client. This is matched by clients and fed into
a ring-fenced fund to be spent on individual energy saving and
renewable projects with a payback of less than five years—such
as boilers, lighting, insulation and controls. Salix also provides
much wider advice and support to help organisation set up and
manage the funds and deliver the projects.
The energy savings realised by the projects are returned
to the fund until the original project investment is repaid. Repayments
are then recycled to other projects so that the fund becomes self
sustaining over time. Once the original project loan is repaid
the energy savings can be kept by clients and spent on front-line
services. Salix's original contribution to the fund can be reclaimed
when the organisation runs out of compliant projects. We expect
this recycling to take, on average, 7-10 years.
Salix began as a Carbon Trust pilot in 19 local authorities.
However, following an injection of £20 million in the 2005
Pre-Budget Report, Salix is accelerating its funding across the
public sector. Currently they have set up funds worth in total
around £25 million (including matched funding) with 63 clients,
48 of these were local authorities, 8 universities, 4 NHS foundation
trusts and 3 police/fire authorities. The key statistics are:
— To date out clients have spent £4.27 million
on 560 individual projects, which save 100,000t CO2 over the lifetime
of the projects.
— In 2006-07 we funded 251 projects costing £2.2
million delivering just over 40,000t CO2 (lifetime).
— By the end of the current year we expect to have
spent around £16 million out of a total fund size of £40
million.
Salix has allocated up to £1 million for central government.
It has recently begun negotiations to set up funds in 4 departments:
DEFRA, the Cabinet Office, DCLG and the National Archives.
As part of the sustainable procurement agenda Salix is working
closely with Defra to understand the barriers to central government
investment in energy efficiency and how Salix will contribute
in the future.
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