Sustainable Development (Hansard, 15 February 1994)

§ Mr. Win Griffiths
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales whether he intends to hold discussions with the Wales Confederation of British Industry and other representatives of Welsh industry to promote the need for the concept of sustainability to characterise future industrial developments.

§ Mr. Redwood
The need to involve industry in action to promote sustainable development is fully recognised in the recently published United Kingdom strategy and related reports. It is expected that Wales CBI will be among those to be consulted on the membership and mode of operation of the national round table. Meanwhile copies of the sustainable development strategy have been sent to them and other business interests in Wales.

§ Mr. Win Griffiths
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what guidance he has given to his non-departmental executive bodies to ensure that they take full account of the United Kingdom strategy for sustainable development, the United Kingdom programme on climate change, the United Kingdom action plan for biodiversity and the United Kingdom programme for sustainable forestry.

§ Sir Wyn Roberts
The preparation of the sustainable development strategy, the programme for climate change and the biodiversity action plan involved extensive consultation, which includes the main non-departmental public bodies in Wales. They have been sent copies of756W the reports of most relevance to their operations and will be appropriately involved in the follow-up action planned by the Government.

§ Mr. Win Griffiths
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what plans he has for an advisory panel on sustainable development in Wales.

§ Mr. Redwood
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by me on 7 February 1994, column94.

§ Mr. Win Griffiths
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what plans he has to ensure that public and private bodies in Wales play their full part in delivering more sustainable forms of development.

§ Mr. Redwood
The Government's plans for involving the public and private sectors in progress towards sustainable development are described in the recently published United Kingdom strategy. This has already been circulated to key Welsh interests; and the Welsh Office will be seeking to ensure that organisations and individuals in Wales play an appropriate part in the follow-up action planned on the strategy, for example, via the round table and citizen's environment initiatives.

§ Mr. Win Griffiths
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what further guidance will be given on schools' environmental management practices as indicated in the sustainable development strategy.

§ Sir Wyn Roberts
As indicated in the United Kingdom strategy on sustainable development, work is in hand to develop a simple environmental audit scheme which schools can carry out themselves to evaluate and improve the environmental impact of their school buildings and grounds.
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The scheme is to cover issues such as energy usage, water economies and landscaping. It is based very much on work done by the Building Research Establishment.
It is planned to publish this scheme later this year and I hope that as many schools as possible in Wales will participate.

§ Mr. Win Griffiths
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what plans he has to promote the active participation of people in Wales in sustainable development strategies to reduce the burden placed on the environment by human activities.

§ Mr. Gwilym Jones
The Government's plans for promoting the concept of sustainable development among the public are described in the recently published United Kingdom strategy for sustainable development. As part of this, the citizen's environment initiative will extend to Wales.