§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will take steps to support integration of environmental considerations into the public procurement process at the EU Council meeting in September; and if she will make a statement. [68031]
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§ Mr. WilsonPolitical agreement was reached on the proposals to simplify, clarify and update the existing public procurement directives at the Internal Market Council on 21 May. In the discussions leading up to this agreement, the UK strongly supported proposals to incorporate legitimate environmental considerations into the procurement process. The proposed new directive will, in particular, clarify the scope to use non-discriminatory specifications, which can include relevant eco-label criteria and green production processes. It will also confirm the scope to consider relevant elements of a company's environmental management systems in selecting tenderers, and to take account of whole life cost and quality issues, such as energy and disposal savings which benefit the contracting authority, at the award stage. This is all very much in line with UK objectives. Discussions are continuing on parallel proposals to amend the utilities directive, where it is expected that the scope to take account of environmental issues, under this directive, will be very similar to that for the public sector. It is not yet clear whether procurement will be a matter for the September Internal Market Council.
§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps she is taking to incorporate environmental criteria into public procurement policies by EU member states. [68029]
§ Mr. WilsonEach member state is responsible for its own public procurement policies within the framework set by the treaty and the EC public procurement directives. The Government have been very active—both domestically and in Brussels—in considering how environmental issues can be taken into account in public procurement within the EC legal framework and the Government's policy of achieving value for money for the taxpayer. The UK played a full part in the discussions in Brussels leading up to the publication of the Commission's interpretative communication on environmental issues and in the clarifications, in the proposed new public sector directive, of how environmental considerations can be taken into account at each stage of the procurement process.