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Section 1. Introduction

1.1 The UK Round Table on Sustainable Development was established in January 1995. It published annual reports in April 1996, March 1997 and March 1998. The Round Table held four plenary meetings between March 1998 and March 1999.

Remit

1.2 The Round Table provides a forum for discussion on major issues of sustainable development. Its main purpose is to identify ways of achieving development in a sustainable manner.

1.3 The full objectives set by the Government for the Round Table are:

• to help identify the agenda and priorities for sustainable development;
• to develop new areas of consensus on difficult issues of sustainable development and, where this is not possible, to clarify and reduce difference;
• to provide advice and recommendations on actions to achieve sustainable development;
• to help evaluate progress towards objectives; and
• to inform and involve others, building wider support for emerging consensus.

We comment on these objectives in our review of the first four years of the Round Table in Section 3.

Membership

1.4 The Round Table includes members from all parts of the United Kingdom and from a wide variety of backgrounds. There has been a substantial change in membership over the past year: the full list of members during the year is at Annex A. A register of members' interests is available from the secretariat.

1.5 The Deputy Prime Minister is President of the Round Table and Ministers attend its plenary meetings. This does not, however, imply Government endorsement of the Round Table's recommendations: the Round Table takes an independent view of the matters it considers.

Working Methods

1.6 An important part of the Round Table's work is to involve and inform others. When it considers specific topics, the Round Table invites people with relevant knowledge and experience onto the subgroups that it establishes. In this way it widens the circle of those participating in its work and increases the range of expertise available to it. The membership of the subgroups that met in 1998-99 is set out at Annex B. In addition:

• the Round Table organised a seminar on monitoring and reporting on sustainable development, held in September 1998, attended by members of the Round Table and 30 others; the results of the seminar were published as a report in November and are summarised in Section 2 of this report;
• the subgroup looking at devolved and regional dimensions of sustainable development held a conference in Belfast in October 1998, attended by 45 policy makers from all parts of the UK; the conference was held on the principles of round-tabling, and made a major contribution to focusing the study.

1.7 From its beginnings, the Round Table has adopted an open style of working. After each plenary meeting an Update newsletter is published, summarising the topics discussed and giving information about other Round Table activities. Around 1,300 people and organisations receive Update, and copies of the Round Table's annual and topic reports. The reports published during 1998-99 are summarised in Section 2 of this report. In addition:

• the report Integrating Biodiversity into Environmental Management Systems was accompanied by a booklet Business and Biodiversity, prepared by the Round Table but published by the environmental charity Earthwatch with corporate sponsorship; the booklet had a high profile launch at the Natural History Museum in May 1998 and demand for it has been high (exceeding the stock of 20,000 copies), requiring a reprint in March 1999 which the Round Table itself funded.
• a leaflet was prepared, conveying the key messages of the report A Stakeholder Approach to Sustainable Business; copies were sent to 4,000 leading companies in March 1999;

1.8 Reflections on the Round Table's methods of working, and some proposals for change, are included in the review of the first four years of the Round Table in Section 3 of this report.

Government Responses to Round Table Reports

1.9 As indicated in its interim response to the Round Table's Second Annual Report, the Government has started to respond individually to Round Table topic reports. During the year, responses were published to three reports: Getting the Best Out of Indicators, Integrating Biodiversity into Environmental Management Systems and Economic Regulation.

1.10 The Round Table considered these responses at its plenary meeting in November 1998. It welcomed the first two. As a result of discussion of the third, the subgroup which prepared the Economic Regulation report was reconvened. The Round Table Chairman has since written to Mr John Battle MP, Minister for Energy and Industry, pressing the case for the economic regulators to be given a duty in respect of sustainable development and accepting the offer of a meeting with Mr Battle. He has also written to the Deputy Prime Minister, urging the Government to establish the principle that all new public bodies will have the objective, in the exercise of their duties, of promoting or taking account of sustainable development and that current bodies should be given an additional duty to that effect; that letter is reproduced at Annex C.

1.11 The Round Table sought a meeting with environment and agriculture Ministers to discuss its report Aspects of Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Policy, published in July 1998, before publication of the Government's response. A meeting with the Rt Hon Michael Meacher MP and Mr Elliot Morley MP finally took place in February 1999. The meeting was positive, and its outcome should be reflected in the Government's response to the report, expected shortly. Mr Meacher has agreed that such meetings should form a regular part of the Government's consideration of Round Table reports; the Round Table welcomes this, provided that the process of response does not thereby become too prolonged.

1.12 Following its response to a recommendation of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, the Government has proposed that its responses to Round Table reports should, where possible, be published within three months of, and only exceptionally more than six months from, the appearance of the report. In his reply, the Chairman drew attention to the proposal for a meeting with Ministers before a response is finalised, suggesting that this be built into the timetable for responses in a manner to be agreed.

Round Table Responses to Government Consultation Papers

1.13 During the past year, the Government has continued to issue a large number of consultation documents on topics relevant to sustainable development. In July 1998, the Chairman wrote to the Deputy Prime Minister saying that the Round Table's way of working made it difficult to respond quickly enough to such documents. The Round Table therefore proposed to be highly selective as to whether to respond within the normal period; but it would stand ready to offer advice at a later stage, on issues arising from the consultation process, if that were to be helpful to Ministers. Mr Prescott agreed this way of working.

1.14 In the light of that proposal, the Government, in its consultation paper Sustainable Production and Use of Chemicals, invited the Round Table to comment on issues arising from the consultation with respect to transparency and public involvement in decision making. The Round Table did so, and its recommendations are reproduced in Section 2 of this report. The response suffered from the imposition of a very tight timescale, exacerbated by lateness in some of the key responses to which the Round Table was reacting, resulting in a less than satisfactory outcome. If this mode of operation is to work well, sufficient time must be built into the timetable for policy making to allow the Round Table to reach a considered view.

The Definition of Sustainable Development and Economic Growth

1.15 One of the key points to emerge from the review of the first four years of the Round Table, reproduced as Section 3 of this report, is the relationship between sustainable development and economic growth. The review draws attention (paragraphs 3.1.4-3.1.6) to one of the Government's objectives for sustainable development - "maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment" - and questions whether the pursuit of high economic growth, narrowly defined, is compatible with the other objectives. It suggests (paragraph 3.3.13) that the Round Table might wish to base part of its next work programme on an analysis of the potential conflicts inherent in these objectives.