Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Accepted
Paragraph: 38
Government holds significant opportunity to drive sustainable public sector procurement.
Conclusion
Given the scale of government purchasing power, both centrally and across the wider public sector, the UK Government has an opportunity, and a responsibility, to drive best practice and to demand the use of sustainably sourced products.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government states that the Environment Act will require large organisations using forest risk commodities to ensure compliance with local land laws, and commits to publishing a review of the Forest Risk Commodity scheme two years after it comes into force to assess its effectiveness.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
38
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted
The UK Government is not currently considering widening the scope of the Government Buying Standards (GBS). The wider public sector is encouraged to specify the minimum mandatory Government Buying Standards (GBS) in tenders. Any organisation concerned about sustainable procurement may choose to comply with the GBS. Many large public bodies have their own sustainable procurement approaches which go even further than these standards. Public bodies such as the NHS also have their own sustainability reporting in place. To support this, they are signposted to public sector annual sustainability reporting guidance which covers the use of resources and sustainable procurement, including where some services are procured from. Complying with the Government buying standards for food and catering services (GBSF) is currently mandatory for central Government departments and their agencies, as well as HM Prison and Probation Service, NHS hospitals, and the armed forces in England. The GBSF were last updated in 2014 and require further updating to reflect regulatory changes, government priorities and the latest scientific evidence. Defra consulted on proposed updates to public sector food and catering policy, including proposed modernisation of the GBSF, from 13 June 2022 to 4 September 2022. Within the consultation, Defra proposed mandatory reporting on food and catering for those public sector organisations where the GBSF is mandatory, to build our understanding of what is bought, sold, and wasted in the public sector.
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