§ The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Margaret Beckett)The UK Government is committed to the achievement of sustainable development. Continued action is needed by all sectors in society to ensure that our social, economic and environmental objectives are achieved simultaneously. The scale of central civil government procurement—estimated at £13 billion per year—means that the purchase of goods, works and services by Government has the potential to contribute directly to sustainable development across a wide range of sectors, from construction to information technology.
Following the recent high-level cross-Government review by the sustainable procurement group, we are clear that central Government procurement can and should support sustainable development within the framework of the Government's procurement policy and its overarching aim of achieving value for money, and the EC procurement rules.
The revised guidance published today by Defra and the Office of Government Commerce makes clear the relationship between sustainable development objectives and the legal and policy framework for procurement. It demonstrates practically how to integrate relevant sustainable development issues at the various stages of are procurement process. It replaces the Joint Note on Environmental Issues in Purchasing issued in 1999 by HMT and DETR. Followed properly, there should be no conflict between relevant sustainable development objectives and obtaining value for money. Indeed, there will be synergies between them, for instance in purchasing energy efficient goods that reduce whole life costs.
We are keen that consideration of environmental impacts should be built in right at the start of the procurement process (at the business case and specification stages), when options are being considered, as this approach is likely to have most potential to contribute to sustainable development objectives, as well as being more appropriate under the EC rules. The consideration of whole life costs is important at these early stages, as well as at the award stage.
This revised guidance signals our support for sustainable procurement across government and meets one of the headline recommendations of the Sustainable Procurement Group. Defra and OGC will continue to work closely together with other departments and the Government's central buying agencies OGCbuying.solutions and NHS PASA on minimum standards for commonly purchased products, departmental environmental procurement strategies, ongoing development of sustainable product information and environmental risk assessment for larger procurement projects. These will be progressed 17WS primarily under the procurement section of the Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate.
Our first priority is for environmental procurement to become embedded across the board in Government purchasing, in order to build upon the progress already made in this area. The understanding, by purchasers, of the scope to consider social issues in procurement is less developed, and further discussion of this by the cross-Government Sustainable Procurement Group is planned, leading towards more comprehensive guidance.
Sustainable procurement will not be achieved overnight, but this guidance is a vital first step to put in place the structures to support and encourage all those involved in government procurement in delivering this important commitment. Copies of the Joint Note on Environmental Issues in Purchasing have been placed in the Library and can also be found online at www.ogc.gov.uk/ or http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/sdig/improving/contextf.htm