Sustainable Development Commission - Closure and Succession

Closure and Succession

On the 22 July 2010, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced that it would stop funding the Commission. The decision was part of the Coalition Government's quango reforms, termed by the media as a "bonfire of the quangos"

This news was criticised by Green Caroline Lucas MP, Guardian journalist and activist George Monbiot, Daily Telegraph journalist Geoffrey Lean, and Friends of the Earth. They claimed the Commission was necessary for the Government to fulfil its ambition to be the “greenest government ever”.

The Chair of the Environmental Audit Select Committee, Labour MP Joan Walley, also criticised the decision to close the Commission. She has led efforts to ensure the Commission's role is succeeded, and in January 2011 the Environmental Audit Select Committee recommended the creation of a new Minister for Sustainable Development.