§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what impact the draft EU public procurement directive will have on the ability of the EU to ensure that all timber procured is from legal and sustainable sources; and if she will make a statement. [68034]
§ Ms HewittI have been asked to reply.
The proposals for amending the public procurement directives include provisions which make clear the scope to take account of green production processes, eco-label criteria and environmental management systems at the appropriate stages of the procurement process. These provisions should, therefore, enable contracting authorities to be clear about their ability to specify, in a non-discriminatory way. that timber and timber-related products should be obtained from legal and sustainable sources. The Government are currently considering its approach to the procurement of sustainable and legal timber in the light of the proposed new directive and the Commission's interpretative communication on environmental issues which preceded it.
§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions there have been relating to proposed European Directive on public procurement, Article 53 so as to ensure that timber used on EU projects in future will come from legal and sustainable sources; and if she will make a statement. [68033]
§ Ms HewittI have been asked to reply.
The Government have been heavily involved in discussions, both domestically and in Brussels, on the scope to take environmental considerations into account under the EC procurement directives. The proposals for clarifying, simplifying and updating these directives, on which political agreement was reached at the Internal Market Council on 21 May, make it clear that relevant green production processes and eco-label criteria can be used in specifications (Article 24). This clarification should enable a procurer to specify—in a non-discriminatory 711W way—timber from legal and sustainable sources and to exclude offers which are non-compliant in this or other relevant respects. The award stage (article 53), which is concerned with the evaluation of compliant bids on the basis of various value for money criteria, is too late in the process to introduce such specification issues. However, environmental considerations which provide a benefit to the contracting authority, in terms of the most economically advantageous tender, can be taken into account at that stage.