§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how his Department has used the UK indicators for sustainable development in(a) the production of the Department's annual report, (b) monitoring progress towards meeting the objectives set out in the UK sustainable development strategy and (c) assessing the environmental implications of policy options; and what plans they have to extend their use in future within the Department. [12267]
§ Mr. BoswellThe Department's officials played an active part in the interdepartmental working group which prepared the UK indicators of sustainable development. We consider that the indicators are a valuable tool for helping us to monitor progress towards sustainable development.
However, most of the indicators relevant to agriculture track changes in the state of the environment. They do not identify precisely the extent and nature of agriculture's contribution.
In order to address these gaps in our knowledge, the Department announced plans to develop more detailed measures of agriculture's impact on the environment in "Rural England 1996"—jointly published by this Department and the Department of Environment in October 1996. The initial work will focus on indicators of pesticide use, emissions of ammonia and greenhouse 186W gases, nutrient losses to water and soil quality. This work should help us to identify future priorities for action or new policy directions which will be recorded in future departmental annual reports.