Baroness Parminter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Parminter on 2016-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made, and when they plan to implement their commitment in the 2014 New York Declaration on Forests to work on new procurement policies to limit the consumption of commodities associated with deforestation.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The Joint Statement on REDD+ by the United Kingdom, Germany and Norway made at the United Nations Climate Summit on 23 September 2014 in support of the New York Declaration on Forests contains a commitment that:

“We will work with other consumer countries to promote national commitments that encourage deforestation-free supply chains, including through public procurement policies to sustainably source commodities such as palm oil, soy, beef and timber“.

The Government Buying Standard for food and catering was amended in October 2012 to include a new requirement to procure palm oil, palm kernel oil and derivatives from sustainable sources. All food and catering products bought by central Government must meet these sustainability requirements.

The Government’s Timber Procurement Policy also requires central Government Departments, Executive Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies to procure timber and timber products that are both legal and sustainable.