§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the names of the environmental consultancies engaged by the Overseas Development Administration for the last five years and provide, in each case, the number of projects for which environmental impact assessments have been prepared and the total value of contracts awarded.
§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd[holding answer 13 July 1993]: A list of the 69 environmental consultancies engaged over the last five years at a total cost of about £9.4 million has been placed in the Libraries of the House.
In line with the environmental appraisal process set out in the ODA manual of environmental appraisal, full environmental impact assessments—EIAs—are undertaken only on projects where earlier examination indicates this is required. EIA is a process rather than a single event. ODA's work in this area can often involve assessing the quality and comprehensiveness of EIAs completed by developing countries or other donors, and strengthening them by additional EIA inputs in line with the manual.
ODA's central financial records show that over the last five years we have contributed to 10 EIA assessments using outside environmental consultancies at a cost of about £2.8 million. These are included in the list referred to earlier in my answer.
ODA central financial records do not, however, cover those environmental assessment and monitoring activities undertaken by in-house advisers and which cover, at the appropriate stage, most of the projects under consideration by ODA.