Membership

Ms Ruth Evans has resigned from the Round Table, and from the Sustainable Development Education Panel, because of family commitments.

Dr Colin Hicks, a regular observer at Round Table meetings, has moved on from his post as Environment Director at DTI. His successor will be Dr Alistair Keddie.

The Round Table is grateful for their helpful contributions to its work.

Plenary meeting

The Round Table held a short plenary meeting on 21 September. The main topics discussed were as follows.

Progress reports from subgroups

Indicators of Sustainable Development
The seminar proposed by the Round Table to discuss the Government's forthcoming report on indicators had been postponed from 17 November until 13 January, when it would be held back to back with a DETR consultation on the process of monitoring and reporting. The venue will be in Birmingham. The group would use the outcomes from the seminar and the work of an external consultancy, soon to be let, to advise the Government on how far such indicators provide the material for monitoring progress on sustainable development and how best to carry work forward.

This would also help in preparations for the new Sustainable Development Commission, one of whose key functions will be monitoring progress towards sustainable development.

Devolved, regional and local issues
The Chairman reported that he intended to visit all the devolved administrations. He had arranged to visit Edinburgh and Cardiff in November and was seeking a subsequent meetings in Belfast. A workshop was to be held on 4 October to discuss the assessment of the Regional Development Agencies and other regional players, to discuss the draft Regional Economic Strategies and to share good practice between regions. Further details of the seminar outcomes are given overleaf.

Land use planning
Mr Graham Wynne, Chairman of this subgroup, reported that work was proceeding well on this short study, which would feed into a major study on this topic by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. The subgroup intended to give a focussed and practical response, setting out a brief vision of how the planning system could promote sustainable development, outlining examples of where it was failing to do so and suggesting issues for further consideration.

Modernising the economy
This short study, looking at the role of taxation, and some aspects of charging, in promoting sustainable development, was soon to engage a consultancy to focus on the implications of environmental taxation for equity and competitiveness. A great deal of work had already gone into setting out a vision of a sustainable economy and why it was a desirable goal. The group was proposing to issue a report to stimulate discussion at a small seminar, early in 2000, of key policy influencers who could have an impact on Government and other stakeholders.

The Chairman of the Round Table has since written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer urging him to maintain and develop Government policy on environmental taxation such as the Climate Change Levy.

Government progress on measures in the White Paper, "A Better Quality of Life"

Mr Andrew Burchell of DETR gave a report on the Government's work in developing the key themes of the White Paper: raising awareness, promoting sustainable development at local and regional level, appraisal and the use of indicators.

To raise awareness, a number of seminars were planned for the autumn, including a series of regional seminars to be attended by Ministers.

DETR would shortly issue guidance on the content and preparation of regional sustainable development frameworks, to support its desire to see such frameworks in each English region by the end of 2000. Ministers had also written to all local authorities encouraging them to put Local Agenda 21 strategies in place.

Turning to appraisal, Mr Burchell said that the Department was internally piloting an approach to integrated impact assessments on aviation and climate change as part of a Government-wide initiative concluding in December this year. A detailed Government report on the indicators of sustainable development would be published in November, setting the baseline against which future progress could be reported. (It was this report that the work of the Indicators subgroup would focus upon; it is now expected in early December). The Local Government Association, with DETR's support, was piloting local indicators of sustainable development, ahead of their publication in March 2000.

The role of the Sustainable Development Commission

DETR had prepared a consultation paper on the new body, which provided a focus for the discussion. Andrew Burchell told members that the paper was deliberately interrogative in tone, as a number of major issues remained unresolved. During discussion the following were highlighted: how devolution will be addressed, secretariat size and financial resources, international input, the need for success criteria to be built into any remit and the number and status of members.

draft response to the Government was considered. This was reviewed in the light of comments made at the plenary and at a seminar which was held on the same day to discuss the remit and operation of the Commission and its relationships with other bodies. Further details of the seminar are given below.

Poverty Indicators Published

It was noted that the Government had published a set of 40 "Poverty Indicators". 3 or 4 of these taken together would enter the headline indicators of sustainable development. The Chairman has since written to the Secretary of State for Social Security congratulating him on the initiative.

Round Table Member on New Advisory Body

s Maria Adebowale, a member of the Round Table, will also be sitting on the Government's recently formed Advisory Committee on Consumer Products and the Environment, which will advise on environmental impacts, information for consumers, stimulating product demand and developing strategies for particular product markets.

Seminar on the forthcoming Sustainable Development Commission

This seminar was held on 21 September, after the plenary meeting. Round Table Members and others with an interest in the new Commission met to discuss the consultation paper published by the DETR. Andrew Burchell outlined why the two bodies were being subsumed into one commission. He invited individuals and organisations present to add their thoughts both during the seminar and afterwards. During the plenary discussion, there was emphasis on the importance of the Commission having high-level status in order to access policy-makers at the most senior level. It was felt that the Commission should be adequately funded to ensure that it commissioned the best available research and that the quality of the secretariat needed to be high. The Commission's role and relationship with other organisations should be made clear so that there was no overlap with existing organisations to ensure that it added value to work on sustainable development. The work programme should reflect policy priorities. The Commission could be both a champion of sustainable development and an advisor on the subject.

The workshops in the afternoon produced commentaries on four topics: status, purpose and remit, working methods and reporting, and membership. It was hoped that the status of the Commission would be enough to ensure it had influence across government. The social exclusion unit was seen as a good model of work practice: it specialised in swift reporting that worked with the grain of ministerial thinking. The Commission should represent equally the three pillars of sustainability and reflect the devolution settlements. A sub-contracting philosophy would assist members to share the workload and broaden the range of expertise. It was seen as essential to the success of the Commission that it formed a bridge with other established bodies.

A report of the seminar is available as a Round Table report, together with the discussion paper and the Round Table's response to it.

Seminar on Regional Issues

Held on 4 October and hosted by the Round Table, this seminar brought together people from around the regions who had been appraising the draft Regional Economic Strategies (RES) and Regional Planning Guidance (RPG). Sir John Harman chaired.

Workshop members shared their experiences of the process of appraisal and debated good practice for future appraisal exercises. Presentations were given by representatives of the Environment Agency, the Council for the Protection of Rural England and ECOTEC consultants. They had all taken part in the process and they described their approach and methodology. Other participants offered case study examples.

The discussions by the participants concluded that, in general, sustainable development could have been addressed more vigorously in the RES and that the Regional Development Agencies would benefit from adopting a multi-stakeholder approach when compiling the strategies. Sustainability appraisal should be embedded in both the RESs and the RPGs so that the impact of their implementation can be monitored and measured over time.

The Round Table Chairman was planning to meet Hilary Armstrong, the Minister for Local Government and the Regions, on 25 October to present the findings of the workshop member s and to encourage the Government to press the RDAs to commit themselves to sustainability appraisal in the implementation of their strategies.

Foresight

The Chairman on 6 October chaired a seminar on sustainable development as part of the Foresight programme. Other Round Table members attended. Details of the seminar will be available from the Office of Science and Technology, DTI.

Secretariat

Mrs Kay West and Mr Ross Andrews joined the secretariat in September. Mrs West will be supporting the Round Table's work on The Role of the Sustainable Development Commission and Devolved, Regional, and Local issues. Mr Andrews will be supporting the studies on Modernising the Economy and Indicators of Sustainable Development. Ms Clare Marshall, who was temporarily supporting work on the seminars, has now moved on.

Secretariat