§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) what changes have been made to the(a) powers and (b) responsibilities of Green Ministers since 1 May; [25938]
(2) pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Ceredigion (Mr. Dafis) of 9 June 1997, Official Report, column 314, what was the outcome of the review of the network of Green Ministers. [25937]
§ Mr. MeacherAs I set out in the Press Notice I released on 30 July, having received the network of Green Ministers following the Election, we gave them the following powers and responsibilities
they now support the Cabinet Committee on the Environment (ENV) chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister;they now have a strategic role to secure environmental appraisal in all Government policy-making, as well as responsibility to green Government operations;individually, their role is to consider the environmental impacts of their Departments' policies and programmes, and to review the management of their Departments to ensure that they operate as sustainably as possible in terms of energy efficiency, waste minimisation and so on.