HL Deb 14 May 2002 vol 635 cc36-7WA
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they have an integrated product policy; and what examples there are of its success. [HL4121]

Lord Whitty

The Government have not adopted a formal national strategy for integrated product policy (IPP) at this stage. However, we are contributing to the development of a policy framework for IPP at EU level, in line with conclusions adopted by the Council of Ministers in June last year. We have also set up the Advisory Committee on Consumer Products and the Environment (ACCPE) to advise on the development of IPP approaches in the UK and how they can most effectively be put into practice to reduce the impacts of consumer goods. Further consideration will be needed in the light of ACCPE's second report,Action for Greener Products, published earlier this month, and a White Paper on IPP which the European Commission has undertaken to produce this summer.

An example of where elements of IPP thinking are already being applied successfully in the UK is in some of the main electrical and electronic product sectors, for which Defra runs a strategy and practical implementation programme called the Market Transformation Programme. This has been working with manufacturers and other stakeholders to achieve savings in the energy used by major domestic goods and by commercial equipment. The lessons learned in this programme are now being tried out to address other environmental issues such as water consumption related to domestic goods and equipment.