This Memorandum was prepared for the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change select committee to support its inquiry into the implications of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico for UK deep water drilling.
“I applaud the efforts of Energywatch and Postwatch to protect and speak up for consumers. It is important now that these bodies seek to evaluate their impact more fully to learn lessons for their future. I am encouraged that they have adopted a positive response to the recommendations and are taking action to improve their performance.”
“Good quality green space is a vital element of a civilized urban environment. It is welcome, therefore, that initiatives by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister are in many parts of the country contributing to a reverse of the decline in the quality of urban green space. This improving trend must be sustained and extended to those urban communities who still have to put up with poor quality green space.
“The provision of urban green space is still at risk of being treated as a Cinderella service at the local level. The case for expenditure needs to be made more effectively and resources targeted where they will have most effect in improving the environment of green spaces.”
“It may not always seem like it but some parts of England are extremely dry, with less water available per person than in places like Spain and Portugal. With daily demand of 32 billion litres a day the Environment Agency has a challenging role managing limited resources efficiently. It has done this task well but there is scope for the Agency to make further efficiency gains without adversely affecting the service it provides.”
“I welcome the progress made by the Environment Agency in creating a single organisation which regulates waste consistently and professionally. The Agency carries out a large number of inspections of waste sites however, and needs to concentrate more effectively on areas of real risk. The Agency could be more efficient and effective by better targeting its efforts on more comprehensive and in-depth inspections, even if this means doing fewer inspections in total. Rogue operators must also be left in no doubt that enforcement action against them will be swift.”
This briefing gives a high-level overview of the range of metrics that government uses to assess and report on sustainable development and environmental protection, and how these compare with good practice principles for a performance management framework.
Our study evaluates how far the government has an effective system for measuring progress towards its environmental objectives.
The National Audit Office has prepared this briefing on environmental protection for the new members of the Environmental Audit Committee
This report examines how far the Ministry of Defence has embedded environmental sustainability in estate management, procurement, governance and policy-making.
