HC Deb 31 July 1997 vol 299 cc572-3W
Ms Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the amount, and proportion, of paper recycled by his Department in each of the last five years. [11543]

Mr. Straw

The Home Office takes its responsibilities to the environment seriously and increasingly participates in local paper recycling schemes. For example, the Department has been operating the Westminster city council's "Green Bin" scheme very successfully for almost two years in its central London headquarters buildings. However, no central record is kept of the amount of paper utilised or recycled.

Ms Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to introduce a waste minimisation strategy for his Department. [11541]

Mr. Straw

The Home Office is committed to seeking improvements to its green housekeeping and is currently revising its energy and environmental strategy and will address waste minimisation as part of this. A draft of the new strategy and accompanying guidance material will be discussed at a property managers seminar to be held on 15 September. The expectation is that the new strategy will be adopted as Home Office policy and receive its official launch by the end of the year.

In the meantime, the current Home Office green housekeeping strategy, published in August 1993, requires that property managers carry out an annual audit against environmental objectives which include waste minimisation. Specific reference is made to the continued need for attention to the efficient use of all resources, to the effective and economic use of paper and to extending the recycling of other departmental waste, such as glass, plastics, cans and batteries. The Department has also promulgated all the central guidance on waste minimisation and can claim considerable success with its recycling of paper, bottles and toner cartridges and most recently with reuse of its computers and printers.

Ms Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on existing targets set to minimise waste in his Department. [11542]

Mr. Straw

My Department is strongly committed to minimising waste. In encouraging its local property managers to make the most effective use of the limited effort they are able to devote to green housekeeping, the Home Office has sought their full co-operation with local and central environmental initiatives for improving waste management in preference to their administering the setting up and monitoring of specific waste minimisation targets. Once a year, the local property managers are asked to report progress against their action plans under the terms of the 1993 Home Office green housekeeping strategy. The Department is in the process of revising its energy and environmental strategy and, in line with the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions' recommendations, will be giving due consideration to the appropriateness of future waste minimisation targets.