The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the 2004 Annual Report of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Source: The Departmental Annual Report 2004: Government Reply to the Committee's Report, First Special Report (Session 2004-05), HC 100, House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2004-Dec
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs published its autumn performance report for 2004, showing progress against public service agreement targets.
Source: Autumn Performance Report 2004, Cm 6396, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | DEFRA press release
Date: 2004-Dec
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs published a five-year strategy. Specific measures set out in the strategy included a Bill providing new powers to tackle litter, fly-tipping, graffiti and abandoned cars; retailer recycling, involving a new partnership with supermarkets and local authorities to increase household recycling; action to make schools, homes and workplaces more energy efficient, and help business save energy and save money; and changes to planning guidance to enable more affordable rural houses to be built where they were needed.
Source: Delivering the Essentials of Life: Defra's five year strategy, Cm 6411, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 8 December 2004, column 98WS, TSO
Links: Strategy (pdf) | Hansard | DEFRA press release (1) | DEFRA press release (2) | DEFRA press release (3) | DEFRA press release (4) | DEFRA press release (5) | HOC Library research paper (pdf) | CBI press release | SEC press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Dec
Plans for a Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill were included in the government s legislative programme for the Parliamentary year 2004-05 (Queen's Speech). The Bill would tackle fly-tipping, litter, abandoned vehicles, and other anti-social behaviour.
Source: House of Lords Hansard, Queen's Speech 23 November 2004, columns 1-4, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 25 November 2004, columns 246-330, TSO
Links: Text of Speech | Lords Hansard | Commons Hansard | LGA press release | ENCAMS press release
Date: 2004-Nov
The government responded to two reports by a committee of MPs on environmental crime.
Source: Government Responses to the Committee's Sixth Report, Session 2003-04, on Environmental Crime and the Courts, and to the Ninth Report, Session 2003-04, on Fly-tipping, Fly-posting, Litter, Graffiti and Noise, Sixth Special Report (Session 2003-04), HC 1232, House of Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Responses | Sixth report | Ninth report
Date: 2004-Nov
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on environmental taxes. It said that levels of revenues from environmental taxes did not necessarily indicate the relative importance or the success of environmental policy: high environmental tax revenues could result either from high rates of taxes or from high levels of environmental problems leading to a large tax base.
Source: Government Response to the Committee's Tenth Report, Session 2003-04 on Budget 2004 and Energy, Fifth Special Report (Session 2003-04), HC 1183, House of Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2004-Oct
A report said that climate change could result in 200 billion of property and infrastructure damage from flooding and coastal erosion by 2050.
Source: Forecasting the Future: Changing climate, changing behaviour, Energy Saving Trust (0845 727 7200) and UK Climate Impacts Programme
Links: Report (pdf) | EST press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Oct
A study looked at ways of ensuring that taxes aimed at reducing consumption of environmental resources did not hit lower-income households disproportionately.
Source: Paul Ekins and Simon Dresner, Green Taxes and Charges: Reducing their impact on low-income households, York Publishing Services for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Report (pdf) | JRF Findings 074 | JRF press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Oct
The Prime Minister said that climate change was the greatest environmental challenge facing the world.
Source: Speech by Tony Blair MP (Prime Minister), 18 September 2004
Links: Text of speech | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Sep
The government published a report on progress made in delivering the commitments made by it at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. It showed that government departments were making progress across the board: but also that further sustained action was needed.
Source: WSSD Two Years On, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (08459 556000)
Links: DEFRA press release
Date: 2004-Sep
A report by a committee of MPs expressed concern about the ability of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to influence other key parts of government. In two key areas - taking account of rural needs, and sustainability - the department relied primarily on others to deliver meaningful results. Although other departments paid 'lip service' to the priorities of sustainable development, Defra was not able to hold sway in the big decisions - for example, over fuel duties and aviation policy.
Source: The Departmental Annual Report 2004, Fifteenth Report (Session 2003-04), HC 707, House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2004-Sep
An article provided a breakdown of environmental taxes paid by businesses and households in 2001, broken down over four categories: taxes on energy, transport, pollution and resources.
Source: Emily Lin and Perry Francis, 'Industrial analysis of environmental taxes', Economic Trends, August 2004, Office for National Statistics, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Article (pdf)
Date: 2004-Aug
A report by a committee of MPs said that, as a percentage of total tax, the revenues from environmental taxes were at their lowest level since 1993. The latest Pre-Budget and Budget Reports contained few significant new measures, and failed to take forward the government's strategy of shifting the burden of taxation from environmental 'goods' to 'bads'.
Source: Budget 2004 and Energy, Tenth Report (Session 2003-04), HC 490, House of Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | FOE press release | CBI press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Aug
A report by a committee of MPs said it was 'regrettable' that the government appeared to have abandoned monitoring policy and awareness aspects of the 'Greening Government' initiative in a systematic and objective manner. The government should collect information from departments on a range of issues relating to greening policy and raising awareness, and report on these each year.
Source: Greening Government 2004, Eighth Report (Session 2003-04), HC 881, House of Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs said that the war on 'local environmental blight' had to be mainstreamed within local authorities. Co-operation within and between councils had to improve, and also between national government and its agencies and those that acted on a more limited geographical basis. Action against local environmental degradation was linked in many ways to the anti-social behaviour agenda.
Source: Environmental Crime: Fly-tipping, fly-posting, litter, graffiti and noise, Ninth Report (Session 2003-04), HC 445, House of Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | LGA press release
Date: 2004-Jul
The government began consultation on a tough new approach to anti-social environmental offences, such as fly-tipping, graffiti, fly-posting, and abandoned vehicles.
Source: Clean Neighbourhoods: Consultation document, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (08459 556000)
Links: Consultation document (pdf) | DEFRA press release | ENCAMS press release | LGA press release
Date: 2004-Jul
The Labour Party published a consultative policy document on social welfare issues, including the environment, public health, and sport and recreation.
Source: Enhancing the Quality of Life, Labour Party (08705 900200)
Links: Consultation document (pdf)
Date: 2004-Jul
A report said that too many of the regulations aimed at protecting the environment were badly designed and poorly implemented.
Source: The UK as a Place to do Business: UK Environmental Regulation, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247)
Links: Summary | CBI press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Jul
A report said that claims for storm and flood damage could treble by 2050 because of the impact of climate change.
Source: Andrew Dlugolecki, A Changing Climate for Insurance, Association of British Insurers (020 7600 3333)
Links: Report (pdf) | ABI press release | Defra press release
Date: 2004-Jun
A think-tank report said that environmentalists and political parties would secure wider public support if they were more effective at linking environmental issues to poverty and ill-health.
Source: Julie Foley (ed.), Sustainability and Social Justice, Institute for Public Policy Research, available from Central Books (0845 458 9911)
Links: Summary (pdf)
Date: 2004-May
A think-tank report said that school pupils should be entitled to out-of-classroom learning activities, including regular school safaris , to enable them to explore their local environment, help them overcome fears about it, and connect them to wider green issues. Outdoor play improved children s health, well-being and personal development: but children living in poverty, in areas of high deprivation, had restricted access to such opportunities.
Source: Guy Thompson and Gillian Thomas, A Child s Place: Why environment matters to children, Green Alliance (020 7233 7433) and Demos
Links: Report (pdf) | Green Alliance press release | Demos press release | Barnardo's press release | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2)
Date: 2004-May
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs published its annual report for 2003-04, detailing progress against performance targets.
Source: Departmental Report 2004, Cm 6219, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | DEFRA press release
Date: 2004-Apr
A report said that reward and recognition could be a more effective way of changing people s behaviour on environmental issues, rather than punishing and taxing them for not being environmentally friendly.
Source: Maxine Holdsworth and David Boyle, Carrots Not Sticks: The possibilities of a sustainable consumption reward card for the UK, National Consumer Council (020 7730 3469) and New Economics Foundation
Links: Report (pdf) | NCC press release
Date: 2004-Apr
Draft proposals for implementing the European Union Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive were published for consultation. The new provisions would ensure that any significant environmental effects were assessed at a much earlier stage in the process - during the preparation of a plan or programme - and before decisions on key issues such as alternative sites for development had been taken.
Source: Draft Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004: Consultation Document, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236)
Links: Consultation document | ODPM press release
Date: 2004-Mar
The government issued guidance to the water industry regulator in relation to its periodic review of water pricing. It said that there was 'every prospect' of significant real price increases in the period 2005 to 2010. It said that it was concerned about the effect of water bills, especially on those least able to pay, and would be reviewing the way in which lower-income households were helped with their water and sewerage charges. The government also responded to a report by a committee of MPs on water pricing. It said it expected companies to have measures in place to allow them to deal effectively and sensitively with customers in debt. A consumer group said that the guidance dashed hopes of a curb on proposed 30 per cent rises in water bills over the period concerned.
Source: Principal Guidance from the Secretary of State to the Director General of Water Services: 2004 periodic review of water price limits, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (020 7238 6000) | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 11 March 2004, columns 106-108WS, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Water Pricing: Government Reply to the Committee's Report, Fourth Special Report (Session 2003-04), HC 420, House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Press release 12 March 2004, WaterVoice (0121 625 3637)
Links: Guidance (pdf) | Hansard | Response to MPs | Water UK press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Mar
A report said that increasing numbers of pension funds were building social and environmental issues into their investment practice.
Source: Chris Gribben and Adam Faruk, Will UK Pension Funds Become More Responsible? Survey of trustees - 2004 edition, Just Pensions (020 7440 9712) and Ashridge Centre for Business and Society
Links: Report (pdf) | Just Pensions press release
Date: 2004-Jan