§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many civil servants in(a) his Department and (b) other Government departments have been trained in environmental appraisal techniques since 1 May. [29021]
§ Mr. MeacherEnvironmental appraisal, whether for policies, projects or programmes, covers a range of skills which are acquired by staff across Government through various routes, including formal training, learning on-the-job and reading guidance documents. Figures are not collected centrally for the numbers of staff, in the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions or in other Government departments, trained in these various ways. I understand, however, that the Civil Service College gives formal training on environmental appraisal in courses on Option Appraisal for economists and on "Spending Public Money Wisely" for fast-stream administrators; both of these normally run twice annually with an attendance of about a dozen each time, and each has run once since 1 May 1997.