HL Deb 17 July 2001 vol 626 cc112-3WA
Baroness David

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What progress the Prison Service has made towards improving its environmental performance. [HL350]

Lord Rooker

The Prison Service is making good progress in this area. A formal greening operations policy was introduced in March 2000, the implementation of which is being overseen by a headquarter's working group chaired by a member of the Prison Service Management Board.

During the last year there have been many developments in areas such as biodiversity, energy efficiency, procurement, transport and waste management. These are described in the service's first annual environmental report, which was published yesterday, a copy of which has been placed in the Library.

The Director General of the Prison Service has made clear his personal commitment to improving the environmental performance of the service and a challenging programme of further work, detailed in the report, has been set for the current year.