§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will issue his Policy Appraisal and the Environmental Policy Guidance, "Sustainable Development: What it is and What You Can Do", to newly-appointed Ministers and civil servants involved in policy development. [126851]
§ Ms Beverley HughesMy Department's document, "Policy Appraisal and the Environment: Policy Guidance", has been made widely available to other Departments since it was published in 1998. It is also now included on the Cabinet Office's website as part of the "Policy Makers Checklist" and all Departments will be adding that checklist to their own intranet sites. A number, including mine, already have. Electronic availability of this guidance is more efficient than the distribution of large numbers of paper copies.
The guide "Sustainable Development: What it is and What You Can Do" is one of four guidance notes issued by the Green Ministers Committee. Again my Department has a stock of paper copies which other Departments can draw from while the guide is also available to them through our website or by addition to their intranets.
Green Ministers regularly consider the procedures by which sustainable development and the environment are integrated into policy-making and act as the focal point for those procedures among their ministerial colleagues in their own Departments.
§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what further plans he has concerning the development of the targets and policies contained in the sustainable development frameworks produced in each English region; and if he will make a statement. [126850]
§ Ms Beverley HughesThe first regional sustainable development framework was launched in the West Midlands in February and the second is due to be launched in the North-West in July; both are promising documents. We expect all the regions to have completed their frameworks by the end of 2000. Frameworks are not Government documents nor are they statutory and they will set their own targets. For frameworks to have a real impact it is vital that their production, including setting priorities and establishing systems for monitoring progress, involves all stakeholders and has support across the region. That is why we have said they should be agreed by the regional chambers. Once published we expect regional decision-makers to "buy in" to the visions set out in frameworks and to act in ways that are consistent with them.