Performance of Companies and Government Departments (Reporting) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 1:13 pm on 26 March 2004.

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Photo of Barry Gardiner Barry Gardiner Labour, Brent North 1:13, 26 March 2004

If the hon. Gentleman is an avid reader of parliamentary questions, he will know that I have tabled more than 120 on the timber sources used by the Government and by each Department—a subject that is very close to my heart. The hon. Gentleman is right that it is important that we in Parliament should get our act together—indeed, it is an absolute priority. It is difficult to stand up and preach to industry and the rest of the world about what should be done unless we are following those procedures ourselves. I am delighted to say that all the Departments to which I put my questions about the procurement of timber were able exactly to describe the parameters of those processes and to say that they specify that hardwood should come from sustainable sources.

As the hon. Gentleman is a member of the Environmental Audit Committee, he will recognise that it is very difficult to track back the certification process. I mentioned the Forest Stewardship Council and the tremendous work that it does on enabling that to happen, but it is one organisation and we are talking about a global trade. When a supplier presents somebody with a certificate saying, "This has come from sustainable sources," there are very few ways in which they can be 100 per cent. sure that that is the case. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman would pay tribute to the work that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development did with the Government of Indonesia when he was in the more junior ministerial position in that Department. He worked with them to ensure that the entire process of governance within that country, including the timber industry, enabled proper certification to take place.

There are an infinite number of links in the chain following the moment at which a piece of timber is cut down in the forest until it takes the form of sawn timber and arrives at a building to be turned into a door, a door frame or whatever. Unless every link in the chain can be certified, it is difficult for us to say, "We rely on the fact that we have a policy. We rely also on the fact that we have a formula that states that the material has come from sustainable sources." It is not enough for us to adopt the right policy. There must be an onus at every stage in the commercial chain, which goes right back to the forest, to ensure that we can properly identify the product that we eventually use.

I rose to talk about the reform of company law and the Bill, and I fear—