CSW has been told by a well-placed source that Defra is planning to cut funding for the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) and that consequently it is “highly unlikely” the commission can continue. Two-thirds of the SDC’s core funding comes from the department and last year it gave £1.9m to the commission, which also received £578,000 from the Scottish Government, £359,000 from the Welsh Assembly and £120,000 from Northern Ireland.

The SDC is the independent climate-change watchdog for the UK government and the devolved administrations, providing advice and scrutinising efforts to become more sustainable. It is led by 11 commissioners and supported by a staff of 60.

There is concern in the Welsh Assembly about the planned cut in funding, and the Welsh government is currently making representations to Whitehall.

Assembly member Leanne Wood said in a plenary session last Tuesday: “I am given to understand that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is planning to abolish the Sustainable Development Commission in England. I understand that the SDC in Wales works under different funding arrangements, but I am not sure whether Defra’s decision has implications for Wales.”

Welsh minister for business and budget, Jane Hutt, responded: “The Sustainable Development Commission has played an important part in our plans and the policy determination adopted in the 'One Wales’ programme for government to move to zero-carbon levels. We are clearly concerned about this review of arms-length bodies of this kind, and we will make representations.”

The Welsh minister for environment, Jane Davidson, is to release a written statement on the SDC later this week after being asked to do so by Wood.

A spokesman for Defra declined to comment specifically on the SDC, but told CSW that the department is talking to all of its arms-length bodies and that announcements “will be made in due course once this process has been completed”.

transformational government, sustainable development