HC Deb 15 March 2000 vol 346 cc212-4W
Dr. Tony Wright

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions as of 1 April 1999, which of the executive and advisory non-departmental public bodies sponsored by his Department(a) were required to publish annual reports, (b) were required to publish annual accounts, (c) were subject to a full audit by the National Audit Office, (d) were under the jurisdiction of the Parliamentary Ombudsman or other ombudsmen, (e) had their own complaints procedure, (f) were required to observe the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, (g) possessed a register of members' interests, (h) allowed the public to inspect a register of members' interests, (i) were subject to a public right to attend board meetings or committee meetings, (j) were obliged to release reports of meetings, (k) were subject to a public right to inspect agendas of meetings, (l) were subject to a public right to see minutes of meetings, (m) were required to hold public meetings, (n) (i) maintained an Internet site and (ii) were developing an Internet site and (o) had been subject to a quinquennial review within the last year, including a continuing review. [114168]

Ms Beverley Hughes

The answers for the NDPBs in DETR are as follows:

  1. (a) All DETR's executive NDPBs are required to publish their Annual Reports, with the exception of the General Lighthouse Authorities, but there is a statutory requirement to produce the Accounts of the General Lighthouse Fund. The Annual Reports and Accounts of the individual Lighthouse Authorities are consolidated into the General Lighthouse Fund's Report and Accounts. The Department's advisory NDPBs either produce annual reports currently or plan to start producing one this year. Such reports are proportional to the body's size and scope.
  2. (b) All DETR's executive NDPBs are required to publish their annual accounts.
  3. (c) Where an executive NDPB's external auditor is the National Audit Office, then it is subject to a full audit by that body. For DETR, those are; the Audit Commission, the Countryside Commission, English Nature, the General Lighthouse Authorities and the General Lighthouse Fund, the Health and Safety Commission, the Health and Safety Executive, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the London Regional Passengers Committee, the Local Government Commission, the eight Regional Development Agencies, and the Traffic Director for London. In some cases, the National Audit Office contract out the work to private sector auditors. The Local Government Residuary Body and the London Pensions Fund Authority are audited by the District Auditor. All DETR's other executive bodies are audited by private sector firms.
  4. (d) All DETR's executive NDPBs come under the remit of either the Parliamentary Ombudsman or the Local Government Ombudsman, with two exceptions:
  1. (i) The Audit Commission appoints auditors of the accounts of local authorities and NHS bodies in England and Wales, and undertakes value for money studies. Like the National Audit Office, it does not deal directly with the public, but it does have its own complaints procedure. While it will investigate 213W complaints about the conduct of an audit, an audit that is found to have been properly conducted can only be reopened by a judicial review.
  2. (ii) The British Board of Agrément was established under the Companies Act. It provides independent assessment and certification of construction products and systems for which there are no recognised standards. Its only dealings with the public are with the construction industry, and these are commercial and contractual by nature and subject to contract law. It will cease to be an NDPB, becoming an autonomous body, on 1 April 1999.

Those bodies that come under the jurisdiction of the Local Government Ombudsman are the five Housing Action Trusts (Castle Vale, Liverpool, Stonebridge, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest) and the London Pensions Fund Authority.

(e) All our NDPBs have their own complaints procedure.

(f) All executive NDPBs that come under the jurisdiction of the Parliamentary Ombudsman are formally required to observe the Code. Those that do not come under the Parliamentary Ombudsman's remit are nevertheless expected to apply the principles of the Code.

(g) All the Department's executive NDPBs possess Registers, with the following exceptions: the General Lighthouse Authorities whose members are not appointed by Ministers; the Health and Safety Executive as the Commission is the body which has Board members appointed to it; and the Traffic Director for London, who is a Corporation Sole and does not have a Board. The following advisory NDPBs have Registers, which are available on request: the Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances, the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, the Advisory Committee on Packaging, the Building Regulations Advisory Committee, the Committee on Chemicals and Materials of Construction for use in Public Water Supply and Swimming Pools, the Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards, the Inland Waterways Amenity Advisory Council, the Property Advisory Group, the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (on the Internet), the Sustainable Development Education Panel, the UK Round Table on Sustainable Development, and the Water Regulations Advisory Committee. It is the Department's policy that the remaining advisory bodies should have Registers in place.

(h) All DETR's NDPBs which possess a Register make it available for inspection on request, or will do so in future.

  1. (i) None
  2. (j) None

(k) None of DETR's NDPBs is subject to a public right to inspect agendas of meetings. However, the following executive and advisory NDPBs publish the agendas of their Board meetings and documents for meetings: the Countryside Commission, English Nature (but not Executive and Performance meeting papers), the Environment Agency (agendas only), the Health and Safety Commission/Executive, Housing Action Trusts (Castle Vale, Liverpool, Stonebridge, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest), the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, and the London Regional Passengers Committee; the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, the Export Action Group for Building Materials, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, the Sustainable Development Education Panel, and the UK Round Table on Sustainable Development.

(l) None of DETR's NDPBs is subject to a public right to see minutes of meetings. However, the following executive and advisory NDPBs publish the minutes of their Board meetings on the Internet or make them available in paper form or do both: the Countryside Commission, English Nature (but not minutes of discussions on Executive and Performance meeting papers), the Environment Agency (summary only), the Health and Safety Commission/Executive, Housing Action Trusts (Castle Vale, Liverpool, Stonebridge, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest), the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the Local Government Commission, and the London Regional Passengers Committee; the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, the Committee on Chemicals and Materials for Use in Public Water Supplies and Swimming Pools, the Export Action Group for Building Materials, the Royal Commission on Environment Pollution, the Sustainable Development Education Panel, and the UK Round Table on Sustainable Development.

(m) None of DETR's NDPBs is required to hold public meetings. However, many of the Department's bodies hold at least one annual open meeting; the Commission for the New Towns, Docklands Light Railway, the Countryside Commission, English Nature, English Partnerships, the Environment Agency, the Health and Safety Commission/Executive, Housing Action Trusts, the Local Government Commission, the Local Government Residuary Body, the London Regional Passengers Committee, and the National Forest Company; the Building Regulations Advisory Committee, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, and the UK Round Table on Sustainable Development.

(n) Most of DETR's executive NDPBs maintain an Internet website. The only exceptions are the Northern Lighthouse Board, Stonebridge and Waltham Forest Housing Action Trusts, the Housing Corporation, the London Pensions Fund Authority, the London Regional Passengers Committee and the National Forest Company. All either plan to get a website shortly or are considering getting one. Generally, information on advisory NDPBs is available on the Department's own website, but the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has its own website, and the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee and the UK Round Table on Sustainable Development are planning to get their own sites.

(o) From 1 May 1997 to 1 April 1999, the following NDPBs have been subject to a Financial Management and Policy Review: the British Board of Agrément, the Local Government Commission, the UK Ecolabelling Board, the Building Regulations Advisory Committee, and the Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards. Ministers agreed that neither the British Board of Agrément nor the UK Ecolabelling Board should continue as executive NDPBs. Reviews of the Audit Commission, the Local Government Commission, the Darwin Advisory Committee and the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution are under way at present.