Conclusions
1. The
separate development of the National Well-being and SDIs could
obscure a coherent and full view of well-being that covers both
a current and future generation perspective. Some types of measures
are included in both sets of indicators, which is likely to confuse
the public and also potentially policy-makers. (Paragraph 21)
2. There is good reason
to rationalise the SDIs, as proposed, not only to help refocus
on the core aspects of sustainable development but to help find
an accommodation with the parallel development of National Well-being
measures. Defra's consultation on the SDIs, and most of the submissions
to our inquiry, were positive about the way this was being done.
(Paragraph 27)
3. GDP clearly is
a factor in current well-being. Its relevance for long-term, inter-generational,
well-being is doubtful, although when juxtaposed with other SDIs
it could help monitor the extent to which growth in the country
is being decoupled from finite resource consumption—the
foundation for sustainable development. (Paragraph 32)
4. [The 'public sector
net debt' indicator] does not distinguish between debt which funds
investment to improve the lot of future generations and debt which
helps pay for current consumption. The indicator has no target
or threshold for determining when the level of debt becomes inter-generationally
unsustainable. There is of course already a measure of the sustainability
of Government debt—the interest rate on government bond
issues—although that assesses a predominantly economic view
of sustainability. (Paragraph 33)
5. Equality
is at the heart of the Society pillar of sustainable development,
but it is not given sufficient coverage in the proposed SDIs to
provide a basis for policy-making to narrow inequalities. (Paragraph
38)
6. The bringing together
in [the 'natural resource use'] Indicator of metal ores and minerals,
which are finite resources, and biomass and timber, which can
be sustainable crops is unhelpful. The inclusion also of fossil
fuels consumption gives a false impression that we need to preserve
this resource, like other resources, for future generations to
use. If the overriding aim of its inclusion is to highlight fossil
fuel consumption and thereby encourage emissions reduction, that
is misplaced because it is already addressed in the separate emissions
reduction indicator. (Paragraph 39)
7. We welcome [that
the 'natural resource use' Indicator would measure usage on a
UK consumption-basis] not least because it reflects an acceptance
of our recommendation for accounting for emissions on the basis
of UK consumption (rather than production) in our October 2011
report on carbon budgets (Paragraph 41)
8. The value of the
existing SDIs had been questioned because in some cases there
had been no link between the measures and the policies which might
influence performance. The lesson for the current revision of
the SDIs is that the process of considering and setting targets
could help link the indicators to policy agendas more closely.
The use of traffic-light assessments of the 'direction of travel'
on indicators provides no insight to whether the UK is achieving,
or falling short, on the sustainability implicit in those indicators.
(Paragraph 44)
9. Beyond taking account
of the contributions to the SDIs consultation exercise, Defra
has work to do to finalise the Indicators still under development,
and then to accommodate the ongoing work of the UN Statistical
Commission tasked at the UN Rio+20 Earth Summit with developing
well-being indicators and the multi-national panels investigation
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The linkage between these
SDGs and the UK's SDIs was an area we had hoped to discuss with
the Deputy Prime Minister, who led the UK delegation at the Rio+20
Summit in June, and it is regrettable that five months later we
are still awaiting an opportunity for such a meeting. (Paragraph
47)
10. The current set
of SDIs is designated as National Statistics, and thus prepared
under the Government Statistical Service code of practice, which
has the benefit of providing assurance on the reliability and
integrity of the results. (Paragraph 48)
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