Sustainable Development (Hansard, 27 January 1994)

§ Mr. Gummer

The launch on 25 January of the sustainable development strategy and biodiversity action plan represents a major step in taking forward the environmental commitments entered into at the 1992 Rio conference. These developments emphasise the importance of considering our environmental policies in the widest context and ensuring that individual elements are not treated in isolation. I therefore propose, as part of the process of ensuring the Rio commitments will be fully and effectively implemented, to give early consideration to bringing together the institutional arrangements for the delivery of nature and landscape conservation and the public's appreciation and enjoyment of the countryside in England.

The administration of nature and countryside conservation was brought together in Scotland and Wales when these functions were reorganised into three national agencies. The Countryside Council for Wales and Scottish National Heritage have rapidly established themselves as effective deliverers of these aspects of our environmental policies. Our 1990 White Paper, "This Common Inheritance", said that we would keep arrangements in England under review.

Since their inception, English Nature and the Countryside Commission have provided a first-class service to the nation within their separate areas of responsibility. However, I now believe it is time to consider bringing them together in one new body. Before taking a final decision I have asked my hon. Friend the Minister for the Environment and Countryside to carry out an urgent study of the issues involved.

The study will be carried out with the co-operation of the two bodies, and there will be a full opportunity for the many people with an interest in these matters to give their views. The study will address the advantages and disadvantages, if any, of integration as well as issues of cost, implications for staff, timing, and the production of a set of forward-looking objectives for a new body.

An official-level steering group, led by the Department of the Environment, and involving both bodies, will supervise the day to day work. Legislation will be required for formal merger and I therefore propose that the study also looks at how closer working could be achieved in the interim or in the circumstances that formal merger was not proceeded with.

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