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Government Abolishes Key Environmental Commissions | 22 Jul 2010

Defra has announced plans to slash two of its key environmental commissions as part of a reform of 'arm's length bodies'.

Announcing the reforms today, Secretary of State Caroline Spelman said that she will be abolishing the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) and removing Defra funding from the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC).

Putting the decision down to "efficiency savings", Spelman said she was "determined to play the lead role in driving the sustainability agenda across the whole of government", a responsibility she would not delegate to an external body.

Spelmansaid that RCEP was established in 1970, when there was very little interest in 'green issues', but was no longer needed because the government now has many sources of independent advice on the state of the environment.

She addedthat removing the SDC and focusing responsibility for sustainable development policy within Defra would improve accountability, avoid duplication and lead to essential efficiencies.

Environmental Protection UK has criticised the decision to close two important environmental bodies, which seems at odd with the Coalition's claim to be the 'Greenest Government ever'.

Philip Mulligan, Chief Executive of Environmental Protection UK, said: "RCEP and SDC were key providers of cross-cutting, forward looking, authoritative advice to the Government.

"Without them the Government will increasingly be influenced by partisan advice from vested interests, which will hardly aid the development of effective environmental policy.

"The coalition Government's repeated insistence that they will be the Greenest Government ever looks weaker by the day, and action is urgently needed to back up the rhetoric"