Written evidence submitted by the Welsh
Assembly Government
SUMMARY
- The Welsh Assembly Government is underpinned
by a legal duty relating to sustainable development, contained
in section 79 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 [GoWA 2006];
- Sustainable development is the central organising
principle of the Welsh Assembly Government;
- The Welsh Assembly Government has a clear governance
structure and a number of mechanisms to embed sustainable development
across its policies and programmes;
- There is a robust and comprehensive reporting
process in relation to the Welsh Assembly Government's sustainable
development performance, which includes scrutiny by the National
Assembly for Wales and commentary by independent stakeholders;
and
- In light of the UK Government announcement concerning
the future of the Sustainable Development Commission, the Welsh
Ministers will develop new arrangements in Wales to provide appropriate
advice, as well as catalyse and support action to deliver sustainable
development in all parts of society across Wales.
INTRODUCTION
1. The Welsh Assembly Government has a duty under
section 79 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 to have a scheme
setting out how it will promote sustainable development in the
exercise of its functions. The duty also requires Welsh Ministers
to:
- publish an annual report of how the proposals
set out in the Sustainable Development Scheme have been implemented
in that financial year; and
- following an election to the National Assembly,
publish a report containing an assessment of how effective the
proposals set out in the scheme have been in promoting sustainable
development.
2. This paper describes how the Welsh Assembly
Government has met its legal duty to implement a Sustainable Development
Scheme. Going further, this paper also describes how we are embedding
sustainable development as the central organising principle of
the Welsh Assembly Government.
BACKGROUND
3. I launched the new Sustainable Development
Scheme One Wales: One Planet in May 2009. This scheme defines
sustainable development as enhancing the economic, social and
environmental wellbeing of people and communities, achieving a
better quality of life for our own and future generations in ways
which:
- promote social justice and equality of opportunity;
and
- enhance the natural and cultural environment
and respect its limits - using only our fair share of the earth's
resources and sustaining our cultural legacy.
4. The new Sustainable Development Scheme:
- affirms that sustainable development will be
the central organising principle of the Welsh Assembly Government
and sets out the steps we will take to fully embed this approach;
- confirms that sustainable development is the
overarching strategic aim of all of our policies and programmes,
across all Ministerial portfolios;
- sets out our vision of a sustainable Wales, based
on using only our fair share of the earth's resources and becoming
a fairer and more just nation; and
- is structured according to our five headline
indicators of sustainable development, to provide a firmer link
between our scheme and how we report progress against sustainable
development.
5. We have more closely defined the meaning of
sustainable development in terms of the central organising principle
of policy making and delivery. The key characteristics that we
have identified are:
- clarity about what is valued and our objectives
- with a focus on maximisation of the economic, social and environmental
wellbeing of Welsh citizens over the long term;
- informing real hard choices in policy and
investment - for example through focusing
on prevention / early intervention, dealing effectively with failure
and promoting policy integration across Departments; and
- securing a sufficiently broad and deep mandate
for our approach - through building trust
and confidence and promoting behaviour and culture change at all
levels in society.
How can mechanisms to ensure the sustainability
of Government operations, procurement and policy-making be improved
and further embedded and mainstreamed across Government departments?
6. The Welsh Assembly Government's duty in relation
to sustainable development gives us a unique understanding of
the challenge in embedding sustainable development across policies,
programmes and projects in Government.
7. In over a decade of having a sustainable development
duty in Wales, we have refined our thinking as to how to meet
this challenge. Our solution, which we have set out in One
Wales: One Planet, is that the long term wellbeing of people,
communities and place must be the basis for making every decision
at the Welsh Assembly Government. That is what we mean by making
sustainable development our central organising principle.
8. Below I have briefly described some of the
mechanisms we have in place within the Welsh Assembly Government
to achieve our goal of making sustainable development our central
organising principle.
WORKING TO
BE AN
EXEMPLAR
9. In our scheme, we confirmed our vision that
the Welsh Assembly Government would become an exemplar organisation
in the way that it mainstreams sustainable development as the
central organising principle. The key outcomes from this we are
working towards are:
- the Welsh Assembly Government, as an exemplar
organisation, demonstrates leadership on sustainable development,
and encourages and enables others to embrace sustainable development
as their central organising principle;
- sustainable development considerations are at
the core of the evaluation and development of our policies and
our new and existing investment proposals; and
- there are effective and participative systems
of governance in all levels of society.
CABINET SUB-COMMITTEE
ON SUSTAINABLE
FUTURES
10. I Chair a Cabinet Sub-Committee on Sustainable
Futures. Its overall purpose is to provide Ministerial oversight
and determine priority actions to:
- embed sustainable development as the central
organising principle of the Welsh Assembly Government;
- tackle the causes of climate change (greenhouse
gas emission reduction); and
- adapt to the impacts of climate change.
11. This Cabinet Sub-Committee meets every two
months and receives regular update reports on the work that different
Ministers are undertaking within their portfolios to take action
in these areas. For example, at our meeting of 4 June 2010 [the
most recent meeting for which papers have been published] the
following items were discussed:
- Embedding Action on Sustainable Development and
Climate Change in the work of Heritage;
- Embedding Action on Sustainable Development and
Climate Change in the work of the Directorate General for Public
Service and Local Government Delivery;
- 10:10 Campaign;
- Update on Promoting and Maintaining Behaviour
Change; and
- Communities and Climate Change.
DIRECTOR GENERAL,
SUSTAINABLE FUTURES
12. At an official level, the Director General
for Sustainable Futures takes forward and champions delivery of
sustainable development across all departments, working directly
to the Permanent Secretary.
13. In addition to having sustainable development
at the very top of the civil service organisation in Wales, we
also have a small dedicated sustainable development policy team
that is responsible for implementation and coordination. This
team has two key roles:
- working closely with other officials across the
Welsh Assembly Government to embed sustainable development as
the central organising principle in policies, programmes and business
practices at all levels in the organisation; and
- working with external partners to encourage and
enable them to adopt sustainable development as their central
organising principle, through mechanisms we have developed such
as the Sustainable Development Charter and Guidance and Wales
Sustainability Week.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
ADVOCATES NETWORK
14. The Sustainable Development Advocates Network
is a group of officials from across the Welsh Assembly Government
who act as sustainable development champions within their own
policy area; staff from the Sustainable Development Commission
(SDC) participate in the Network. Network members trial new ideas,
promote best practice and share learning and experiences.
15. Some of the work taken forward by the Advocates
has included projects with Forum for the Future to "pilot"
approaches to embed the concept of a "central organising
principle" within their Department. Examples include sustainable
development workshops for team leaders in the Health Department
and research with public sector procurement leads with Value Wales.
WORK TO
EMBED SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT IN
DEPARTMENTS
16. Several Departments have created their own
sustainable development tools and processes. Examples include:
- Creating Sustainable Places
which is used by the Department for Economy and Transport (DE&T)
to embed sustainable development in regeneration programmes;
- Education for Sustainable Development and
Global Citizenship programme (ESDGC) which
is a programme led by the Department for Children, Lifelong Learning
and Skills (DCELLS) to embed sustainable development in the whole
curriculum and management of schools; and
- Sustainable Procurement
is led by Value Wales and includes work such as the development
of a Sustainable Procurement Action Framework (SPAF) designed
to build sustainability into specification design, supplier selection,
contract award and management. [see also paragraph 22]
Further details of work within Departments can be
provided.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
TRAINING
17. One Wales: One Planet was supported
in its first year by a training course that was made available
to all staff entitled: One Wales: One Planet - the central
organising principle. This course focused on staff developing
a broad awareness of the scheme and the principles of sustainable
development, including the duties on the Welsh Assembly Government
in relation to sustainable development and how this is relevant
to their work.
18. We have revised this course to reflect the
lessons we have learnt a year on since the publication of One
Wales: One Planet. We are also embedding sustainable development
as part of other training programmes, for example within the suite
of policy and procurement training.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
PARTNERS
19. We have a number of key partnerships with
sustainable development experts. In their different roles and
relationships we feel these partnerships have added insight, scrutiny,
specialist support, research and advice; without these "critical
friends" the Welsh Assembly Government would not have made
as significant progress as it has. Our principal partners are:
- SDC Wales - the SDC
in Wales provides the Welsh Assembly Government with advice and
commentary on sustainable development and has helped shape our
thinking in a number of critical areas. For example, the SDC has
very recently contributed to the work on Low Carbon Regions in
Wales; has engaged with retailers on the single use carrier bags
levy; and provided commentary in our Sustainable Development Annual
Report 2009-10;
- Cynnal Cymru - Cynnal
Cymru is an independent, not for profit organisation that was
established by the Welsh Assembly Government to engage with civil
society to increase understanding of sustainable development and
assist in creating behaviour change towards achieving a "one
planet Wales". For example Cynnal Cymru supports the Network
of external partners that have "signed up" to the Sustainable
Development Charter and provided the views of civil society in
our Annual Report 2009-10; and
- Forum for the Future (Forum)
- Forum has worked with the Welsh Assembly Government over the
last ten years to develop a range of tools and processes to embed
sustainable development. For example, we recently commissioned
Forum to research best practice organisations that have successfully
embedded sustainable development. We used this work to inform
the content of our Sustainable Development Charter [as noted in
paragraph 13].
POLICY INTEGRATION
20. We have a Policy Gateway Tool, developed
originally by Forum for the Future, as a tool for integrating
sustainable development into policies as they are developed, ensuring
that that the policies contribute to economic, social and environmental
outcomes in an integrated way, and so promote the long term wellbeing
of people and communities in Wales.
21. During 2009-10 we continued to develop our
policy making process. To complement the Gateway, a Policy Threshold
tool is now used at an early stage of policy development to prompt
policy makers to assess:
- the impact of the policy on long term wellbeing;
- integration of social, economic, cultural and
environmental objectives;
- potential conflicts with other policies;
- likely effect on the sustainable development
indicators; and
- sustainability aspects of any procurement activity.
SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT
22. We have developed a Sustainable Procurement
Action Framework (SPAF), an assessment tool with levels 1 (lowest)
to 5 (highest). Our Sustainable Development Scheme commits us
to achieving level 5 of the SPAF by 2010, by demonstrating that
we are building sustainability into specification design, supplier
selection, contract award and management.
23. We apply a Sustainable Risk Assessment (SRA),
which allows the consideration of all economic, social and environment
factors within new procurement specifications, to all competitively
tendered contracts over £25,000 in support of this.
How can governance arrangements for sustainable
development in Government be improved, and how can sustainability
reporting by Government departments be made more transparent and
accountable?
24. The Welsh Assembly Government has a number
of governance arrangements in place to ensure regular, open and
transparent reporting. In some cases these procedures are statutory
and in other cases, we have made additional arrangements because
of the commitment of the Welsh Assembly Government to full transparency
in its performance on sustainable development.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
ANNUAL REPORT
25. The Welsh Assembly Government has a statutory
duty to publish a Report [s79(6)(a) GoWA] on how the proposals
sets out in its Scheme for Sustainable Development have been implemented
each year. This report is laid before the National Assembly for
Wales and is there is an annual Plenary debate to give Assembly
Members the opportunity to give me their views on this report.
26. In our 2008-09 Annual Report, for the first
time, we included independent commentary on our progress from
the SDC Wales. In our 2009-10 Annual Report [laid at the National
Assembly for Wales 21 September 2010] the SDC Commissioner for
Wales, Peter Davies, once again contributed an independent commentary.
27. An example of the value of this independent
commentary is that, in the recent debate on our Annual Report
[28 September 2010] I took an amendment to the Motion (which welcomed
the Annual Report), based almost entirely on a recommendation
made by the SDC Wales in their commentary.
28. The 2009-10 Annual Report is also significant
in that for the first time we included an independent commentary
from Cynnal Cymru who gathered the views of civil society in Wales
on the impact of our Scheme on our external partners.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
INDICATORS
29. We report our progress towards becoming a
more sustainable nation annually using five headline indicators
of sustainable development:
- sustainable resource use - Wales' Ecological
Footprint;
- sustaining the environment - percentage of Biodiversity
Action Plan species and habitats recorded as stable or increasing;
- a sustainable economy - Gross Value Added (GVA)
and GVA per head;
- a sustainable society - percentage of the population
in low-income households; and
- wellbeing - the wellbeing of Wales.
30. Our scheme is structured around these five
indicators, to provide a clear link between the proposals we set
out in our scheme and how we report our progress towards becoming
a more sustainable nation.
31. The latest Indicators Report for 2010 was
published 26 August and, for the first time, we reported on the
wellbeing of Wales as one of five headline indicators of sustainable
development.
32. The five headline indicators are underpinned
by 39 supporting indicators in a range of fields such as waste,
crime, workless households and air quality. Overall, the publication
showed that:
- 17 of 44 indicator assessments show a clear improvement;
- 22 of 44 indicator assessments show little or
no change;
- 1 of 44 indicator assessments show clear deterioration;
- 4 of 44 indicator assessments have insufficient
or no comparable data.
33. As with the Annual Report, there is an opportunity
for Assembly Members to give me their views on the progress on
our SD Indicators report during an annual Plenary debate.
GREEN DRAGON
34. In terms of the environmental sustainability
of our own operations and its reporting, we publish an annual
Green Dragon report (Green Dragon is a Welsh Environmental Management
System in five levels, with level 5 equivalent to ISO 14001).
35. The Welsh Assembly Government has achieved
Level 5 of the Green Dragon Standard for the entire administrative
estate. The Environmental Management System now covers all administrative
estate offices and in-house business processes and includes trained
Green Dragon teams in 20 offices with responsibility for local
environmental management.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
IN GOVERNMENT
(SDIG)
36. In addition to the above, we also ask the
SDC to benchmark our progress in our environmental management
as part of their Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG)
reporting process.
37. Their first report was published in December
2009. The SDC reported "very good" or "good"
progress in the follow areas: waste arisings, recycling, electricity
from renewables, use of BREEAM and use of sustainability appraisals.
Areas where no progress was reported were carbon dioxide emissions
from road vehicles and water consumption.
38. We have used the analysis provided by the
SDC within our annual review of our Environmental Management System
(EMS), and the resulting Action Plan from this review will strengthen
our progress across all areas.
COMMITTEE SCRUTINY
39. We are scrutinised on our policies and programmes
on sustainable development by the Sustainability Committee of
the National Assembly for Wales.
40. In addition, in January 2010 the Wales Audit
Office (WAO) published a report on sustainable development and
business decision making in the Welsh Assembly Government. The
report is currently before the Public Accounts Committee of the
National Assembly, and at the time of writing, we await their
report.
Was the SDC successful in fulfilling its remit?
Which aspects of its work have reached a natural end, or are otherwise
of less importance, and which remain of particular continuing
importance?
41. We strongly support the work of the SDC,
and in particular we value the following aspects:
- the expertise and authority on sustainable development
provided by its Commissioners;
- its ability to draw on good practice and initiatives
from across the UK to advise us on the delivery of sustainable
development in different policy areas;
- in Wales, the SDC has convened stakeholders to
consider particularly challenging issues and taken these issues
forward on a "coalition of the willing" basis; and
- its provision of independent commentary to us
(for example in our Sustainable Development Annual Report) on
the progress we are making and on the barriers to implementation.
42. We are committed to funding the delivery
of the SDC's agreed work programme to the end of this financial
year.
43. I am also attracted to the option of retaining
the SDC as a dormant company. This has the potential to offer
the following benefits:
- It allows the option of retaining the expertise
provided by the existing Commissioners of the SDC, for members
of the SDC to draw upon, possibly on a "call-off" basis;
- The Commissioners could provide a body of expertise
for the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee to draw
upon;
- It retains the option of the re- establishing
the SDC as a "live" company at some time in the future,
should Members of the SDC wish to do this, without the cost of
re-establishing a new company limited by guarantee.
There are legal and other administrative details
that would need to be confirmed, but I have asked the Secretary
of State for the Environment and other Ministers in the Devolved
Administrations to consider this as an option.
44. I have stated that we will continue to seek
independent advice on sustainable development, drawing on the
best practice from the UK, Europe and internationally, to inform
us as we take forward our policies. We also recognise the need
for continued engagement and networking with all sectors and communities
in Wales to ensure we can deliver our vision of a sustainable
Wales.
45. We will therefore ensure that we develop
new arrangements in place that are fit for our purpose here in
Wales to provide appropriate advice on sustainable development
and to catalyse and support action to deliver sustainable development
in all parts of society across Wales.
20 October 2010
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