§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what scope EU contracting authorities will have under the proposed new EU public procurement directive to make choices between bids at the award stage, based on environmental criteria; and if she will make a statement. [83930]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonAt the award stage, the proposed new directive makes it clear that contracting authorities are able to use environmental criteria where these are justified by the subject of the contract and provide a benefit to the contracting authority. Such criteria can include whole life cost factors, such as energy usage, disposal costs, and recyclability, as well as those related to qualitative aspects of the product. However, it will often be more appropriate and sensible to take environmental issues into account earlier on in the procurement process, in defining the subject of the contract and the specification. There is much scope to do this, provided that such specifications do not discriminate against suppliers across the Community, and that buyers respect the rules in the directives on technical specifications. Contracting authorities can, for example, specify green production processes (eg timber from sustainable sources, recycled paper, green electricity etc) and can refer to relevant eco-label criteria. Contracting authorities can also define one or more variants to the standard specification to allow, for example, bids to be submitted which offer a higher environmental performance.