Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution

CONTENTS	Paragraph
General introduction
Role of the Commission	1
Role of Members	6
Role of the Secretariat	8
Commission meetings	10
Royal Commission studies	11
Selection of topics for study	14
Gathering of information	20
First phase: Scoping and initial preparation	21
Second phase: Gathering additional information and inviting evidence	27
Supplementing the expertise of Commission Members	32
Processing of information, deliberation and drafting	35
Background information (first phase of information gathering)	36
Submissions of written evidence (second phase of information gathering)	38
Personal contact	43
Availability of evidence	48
Deliberation and drafting	52
Presentation of the Commission and its work	62
Publication of reports	63
Presentation of the Commission	69
The Commission's web-site	69
Annual Report	72

1. The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution is a standing body with the following terms of reference:

To advise on matters, both national and international, concerning the pollution of the environment; on the adequacy of research in this field; and the future possibilities of danger to the environment.

The Commission provides its advice mainly in the form of reports which are the outcome of major studies. These are submitted to HM The Queen, and then presented to Parliament and published by her command. It also makes some short statements, as news releases or in response to government consultation papers, on matters which it considers of special importance or which arise out of its recent or current studies.

2. The primary role of the Commission is to contribute to policy development in the longer term by providing an authoritative factual basis for policy-making and debate, and setting new policy agendas and priorities. It approaches environmental issues within the framework of sustainable development. It seeks to take into account the economic, ethical and social aspects of an issue as well as the scientific and technological aspects. It fulfils its responsibility for advising on the adequacy of research primarily in the context of its studies of other issues. It aims to make its reports comprehensible and accessible to a wide audience, irrespective of whether they have scientific or technical expertise.

3. The Royal Warrant makes it clear that the essential function of the Chairman and Members is to inquire into topics within their terms of reference and leaves them discretion about how they do so. The Commission's responsibility is to obtain whatever information it considers necessary in order to allow it to formulate and submit advice on those issues it has identified as important.

4. Although it is funded by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), the Commission is independent of government Departments. They are, however, a major source of evidence and information for its studies. Most Commission recommendations are addressed to government Departments; and the government responses to Commission reports are prepared and published by one or more government Departments.

5. To maximise the effectiveness of its contribution to policy development, the Commission tries to keep abreast of environmental and legislative developments on a global, European and UK basis, within the constraints of the limited time available to Members and Secretariat. It does this partly by arranging periodic meetings with various bodies. Key contacts are with DETR, as the government Department with lead responsibility for the environment; with the Environment Departments for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; and with DGXI, as the environmental Directorate-General in Brussels.

6. The Chairman and Members of the Commission are responsible for its actions, reports and statements. They are appointed by HM The Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister, who receives recommendations from the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions. They come from a wide variety of backgrounds, are part-time, and serve in a personal capacity, not as representatives of particular interests. They are required to declare interests which may conflict with their role as Commission Members; a Register of Members' Interests can be inspected by the public at the Commission's offices.

7. There is an expectation that Members will draw the Commission's attention to significant developments in their own fields. To put themselves in a position to do that, individual Members may need to have either private or public discussions about matters before the Commission with experts on a particular subject.

8. The full-time Secretariat supports the Chairman and Members by arranging, preparing papers for, and recording meetings; and by handling the Commission's finances, administration and correspondence. It also helps to ensure, by scanning information sources and through informal contacts, that the Commission maintains a general awareness of important developments in environmental policy or environmental science.

9. The Secretariat contributes to Commission studies by identifying, gathering and synthesising the information required; and by drawing together the conclusions reached by Members, drafting appropriate text, and editing and publishing Commission reports. The Secretariat's information management functions involve:

carrying out preparatory and scoping work for new studies; organising the issue of invitations to submit information/evidence for a study; receiving and logging information/evidence; summarising and circulating relevant information/evidence to Members; additional information gathering from other sources; writing background papers and handling further dissemination of information to Members; arranging presentations, oral evidence sessions, visits and other formal and informal discussions with outside bodies and individuals.

10. The Commission normally meets for 1½-2 days once a month for 11 months of the year. Following their approval by the subsequent meeting, the minutes of Commission meetings are made available through the Internet. In addition to sessions of the full Commission, smaller groups of Members meet within, and on occasions outside, this envelope to take forward particular aspects of studies, either as formal or ad hoc working groups, so enabling the Commission to cover more ground in the available meeting time.

ROYAL COMMISSION STUDIES

11. The following guidelines provide a framework for the conduct of the Commission's studies and also touch on other aspects of the Commission's operations, including public presentation of its work. They should not, however, be considered a constraint to further innovation, and should be reviewed after completion of each major Commission study.

12. The guidelines are in four sections, as follows:

selection of topics for study (paragraphs 14-19) gathering of information (paragraphs 20-34) processing of information, deliberation and drafting (paragraphs 35-61) presentation of the Commission and its work (paragraphs 62-73).

13. To ensure a rolling programme of work for the Commission, the selection of new topics for study takes place during ongoing work on the existing study. The duration of Commission studies is measured from the beginning of the scoping and initial preparation stage to publication of the finished report. Based on analysis of the duration of completed studies, the Commission sets itself a target of 2½ years (from announcement to publication) for completion of a study.

14. In 1993, the Commission published the following list of criteria which guide it in choosing topics for study (although any one study will not necessarily meet all the criteria):

a. the topics chosen should be what the Commission's First Report called 'priorities for enquiry': issues which require detailed and rigorous analysis before satisfactory policies can be adopted; b. they should raise wide issues, both intellectually (in the sense of spanning several disciplines) and organisationally (in the sense of not falling within the terms of reference of any other single body); c. they are likely to involve general issues of principle; d. they should not normally duplicate other studies already in progress or planned in the near future; e. there should be a reasonable prospect that worthwhile conclusions can be produced within two years with the resources likely to be available to the Commission.

The implication of these criteria is that the Commission generally undertakes complex and challenging studies covering broad cross-disciplinary issues.

15. In choosing topics, the Commission also seeks to take into account trends in environmental policy at European and global levels which seem likely to have significant implications for the UK.

16. Topics for study are chosen as follows:

a. the Forward Look statement, contained in the Commission's Annual Report, lists the subjects which the Commission is keeping under consideration for future study. The list is updated annually on the basis of consultation with government Departments, regulatory agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and European bodies; b. to select the subject for its next study, the Commission first considers the list of subjects in the Forward Look, plus any additional suggestions from the Members or Secretariat; c. Members decide on a short list of topics, which is worked up by the Secretariat to indicate the possible coverage of specific reports. A more formal input is sought from DETR and, if appropriate, from other Departments; d. the short list is discussed by Members. Departmental input is informative but will not necessarily determine the Commission's choice of topic; e. the Commission chooses and announces the topic for the next study and moves on to gathering information about it as described below.

17. The Royal Warrant provides for the possibility that a topic for study might be referred to the Commission by a government Minister. In this instance, the Commission would be obliged to carry out that study. There have, however, in practice been few requests of this type.

18. The mix of disciplines represented by Members is recognised as one of the Commission's great strengths. Thus, the membership of the Commission should not necessarily govern the choice of a topic. The important qualities a Commissioner brings to a new study are an intelligent interest, good judgement, an open mind, and a capacity to learn.

19. In maintaining general awareness of current developments, the Commission pays particular attention to information about the subjects listed in the Forward Look statement as the most promising subjects for future studies.

20. Once a topic has been selected for study, the Commission seeks to gather the range and variety of information necessary for it to carry out its work. The information gathering process can be divided into two phases:

scoping and initial preparation, in order to identify the specific issues the Commission will consider; gathering the additional information required to resolve these issues and prepare the report.

First phase: Scoping and initial preparation
21. Commission reports can have different purposes. Although the Commission's main role is to advise and inform policy and its major audience is government and policy-makers, the Commission's reports also inform other sections of society. For example, the Nineteenth Report, Sustainable Use of Soil, contained much for professional scientific bodies and environmental regulators to consider and act on, and the Eighteenth Report did much to bring a greater awareness of the UK's transport problems to the general public. Some Commission reports may be directed, at least in part, to audiences outside the UK, notably in the European Union.

22. A customer survey in 1997 showed that the Commission's reports are most valued for:

contributing to policy development in the longer term providing an authoritative factual basis for policy-making and debate setting new policy agendas or priorities.

Reports also fulfilled other roles such as

making a direct contribution to development of government policies helping to resolve difficult policy choices providing a conceptual basis for environmental protection informing public opinion.

23. The purpose of the first phase of information gathering is to obtain an overview of current thinking about the topic, broadly defined, and to amass sufficient background information to enable Members to formulate their own expectations for the study, what roles they expect the report to fulfil and what audience(s) they intend for the report. They can then go on to define the issues the report should cover, and discard those issues it should not cover.

24. Although this first phase of the information-gathering process will vary from study to study, the following actions should be considered:

collation of background material, perhaps in the form of a reading list, or more tailored background papers or literature reviews surveying the field, prepared either by the Secretariat or by consultants; teach-ins and presentations from experts in the field; publication of a request for readily available information on the topic, or on specific elements of the topic, or details of relevant work in progress.

At all stages of information gathering, the Secretariat and Members seek to locate and make contact with the key individuals and organisations in the UK and overseas who have the greatest expertise and insight in a particular field.

25. The Secretariat is developing methods of making effective use of the huge quantity of information available on the Internet. Both for current awareness and for specific studies, the Secretariat monitors the national press, a range of environmental journals and the publications and work in progress of key organisations in the UK, Europe and elsewhere, including government Departments and regulatory agencies, NGOs, advisory bodies and research institutes.

26. The Commission stimulates interest in its studies and encourages individuals and organisations to contribute to them by participating in discussion meetings organised by other appropriate bodies. Once the Commission has digested the information gathered initially and tentatively identified issues for consideration, these ideas are tested against the views and perspectives of a wide range of individuals and organisations. That can be done to some extent through meetings organised by other bodies. However, seminars hosted by the Commission and designed for this purpose can achieve wider consultation and bring together both experts and interested lay-people.

Second phase: Gathering additional information and inviting evidence

27. By the end of the first phase, utilising the information gathered by the Secretariat, commissioned from consultants or otherwise obtained, the Commission will have identified the big questions and substantive issues within the topic it wishes to cover in its report. With this preparatory work completed, the Commission is in a position to decide the basis upon which additional information should be sought, by framing

the formal invitation to submit written evidence; if appropriate, specifications for commissioning research by consultants on particular aspects of a study.

28. Formal invitations to submit written evidence are issued simultaneously as

a news release placed on the Internet and widely distributed to the media; letters inviting evidence (essentially the same text as the news release) sent to individual government Departments, NGOs, industry and trade associations, and other organisations in the UK, Europe and elsewhere which have an interest or responsibilities in environmental policy generally or in the topic of the study, and also personally to some key experts.

29. The Secretariat prepares a mailing list for each study by consulting:

lists prepared for previous studies Commission Members circulation lists used by government Departments standard directories.

The letters inviting evidence have appended a list of those contacted and request recipients to suggest additional individuals or organisations who should receive an invitation.

30. Although the Secretariat seeks to ensure a very wide coverage in the mailing list, it is impossible to guarantee that it will include all those with relevant interests or who might have a contribution to make. The news release, which is generally picked up by the specialist press, is therefore an essential complement to the individual letters. Advertisements are placed in the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes, and may be placed in other periodicals and newspapers where that is appropriate in relation to a particular topic.

31. In both phases of information gathering selection of consultants will in appropriate cases be by competitive tender. This will sometimes be preceded by making enquiries of a larger number of potential contractors to establish whether they have appropriate expertise and would like to be invited to tender.

Supplementing the expertise of Commission Members
32. The Commission has not in recent years co-opted members for the purposes of a particular study. However, it has on occasions employed expert advisers, and some of these have functioned in effect as co-opted members, usually of working groups.

33. In other cases expert advisers have merely had an advisory role in relation to particular aspects of a study, and have attended only a few Commission meetings, although they may also offer substantial guidance to the Secretariat.

34. The case for appointing an expert adviser depends on the nature of a study, the issues identified for consideration, and the kinds of expertise already represented among Members and in the Secretariat. A decision to appoint an expert adviser or advisers should normally be taken at the same time as formal evidence is invited.

35. In order to produce its report the Commission analyses the written material assembled (whether as background information or as formal submissions of evidence) and further information obtained through various forms of personal contact. The following sections deal with

the processing of background information (paragraphs 36-37) the processing of submissions of written evidence (paragraphs 38-42) information obtained by personal contact (paragraphs 43-47) the availability of evidence (paragraphs 48-51) deliberation and drafting (paragraphs 52-61).

Background information (first phase of information gathering)
36. Background information may be collected by the Secretariat, received in response to general requests to outside organisations, or synthesised into background papers or literature reviews produced by the Secretariat or commissioned from outside consultants.

37. Background information received from outside individuals or organisations during the first phase of information gathering will generally, but not exclusively, be in the form of previously published documents or references to such documents. The Secretariat compiles a database listing all the documents to which the Commission's attention has been drawn and the source of information about them, and records opinions expressed in covering letters. Brief summaries of this information are prepared for Members as appropriate; those documents which are held by the Secretariat are made available for Members to consult.

Submissions of written evidence (second phase of information gathering)
38. All formal submissions of written evidence are classified so that they can be used effectively by both Members and Secretariat. The Secretariat sifts the submissions in order to identify what contribution each submission makes on which issues (as identified in the invitation to submit evidence).

39. The Secretariat then circulates the submissions to Members with a cover note in standard form, not exceeding 1-2 sides of A4 paper, and uses key words or phrases to indicate which areas each covers.

40. The cover notes are held by the Secretariat in electronic form. The key words and phrases help in grouping evidence for consideration by the Commission and in locating important submissions when summaries of evidence on certain issues are required.

41. All formal submissions of written evidence are circulated to all Members. The only exceptions are those which do not contain any substantive information or views (for example because they merely refer to other material); lists of these are circulated to Members. The classification of evidence by the Secretariat enables Members to select the submissions they wish to examine in detail.

42. Where a submission of evidence is of particular relevance to an individual Member's discipline or interests, the Secretariat may invite that Member to comment on it. An opportunity is provided at meetings for Members to draw the attention of the Commission to any issues arising from any of the submissions which are not already dealt with in the Secretariat's cover note.

Personal contact
43. The Commission can supplement the written information it receives in the following ways:

through presentations at meetings by taking oral evidence through visits by inviting guests to informal discussions over lunch or dinner.

All of these have been found to provide valuable input to Commission studies. All personal contacts by the Commission which contribute to a study are listed in the appendices to the published report.

44. The Commission usually provides appropriate Ministers and senior civil servants and relevant regulatory agencies with an opportunity to contribute to a study in at least one of the above ways. The Commission also makes use of contacts with a much wider range of organisations and individuals. The general criterion for selection is the value of the contribution particular people are expected to make to the Commission's work, rather than what agency or body they come from.

45. The Secretariat plans personal contacts in order to shed the maximum light on the issues the Commission has identified for investigation. This may require a good deal of preparation by the Commission to ensure that discussion and debate are sharply focused. Sessions must be carefully planned and targeted so that all parties involved are clear about the matters to be covered and the objectives and expectations.

46. Personal contacts can be separated into four categories according to the functions they serve, namely:

educating the Commission - presentations from experts or visits in the UK and/or abroad are useful in providing background information at an early stage of a study or in enlarging on aspects of a study which are not covered well or at all in written background material or submissions of evidence; clarifying the issues, expanding on written evidence and challenging evidence received - this is the ground covered by more traditional sessions of oral evidence, at which Members question individuals or representatives of an organisation on the basis of the written evidence previously submitted; refining Commission thinking - sessions of this type are of most value after some progress has been made with a study. The Commission will have identified the key issues for its study but will not have developed a common position. The views of key individuals and organisations are sought to help the Commission refine its thinking; rehearsing the Commission's provisional findings - sessions at which the Commission rehearses the arguments and/or expressions of its findings and bounces ideas off individuals and representatives of organisations. This type of encounter is most useful in the final stages of a study, when findings can be tested before an expert audience before publication.

47. For all these purposes the Commission intends to make more use of sessions at which a range of viewpoints and perspectives can be presented and discussed. Some of these sessions will be held in public.

Availability of evidence
48. In its published reports the Commission indicates the source of all information which it regards as material in reaching its conclusions. Much of it will be of direct use to other organisations or individuals. The Commission recognises the obligation to make as much as possible of that information generally available, where it does not come from published sources.

49. Formal invitations to submit evidence to a Commission study make it clear that written evidence will be made available to the public on request, unless those submitting it specify otherwise. There is a similar rule for material commissioned from consultants for which the Commission reserves the copyright. In some cases the Commission has facilitated agreement between Her Majesty's Stationery Office and other bodies or commercial publishers to organise the wider dissemination of commissioned work.

50. The purpose of personal contacts by the Commission is to obtain information and views in a more informal way; in order to promote the freest possible exchange of views, there is generally an understanding that the source will not be attributed. The Secretariat makes informal notes of the information and views obtained from personal contacts, checks the factual content (where possible) with those whom the Commission has met, and circulates them to Members. It is considered that discussion would often be inhibited by knowledge that a record will be made public. Where, however, personal contacts have taken the form of a public meeting or seminar, a record is made public.

51. Some other Commission documents and information (excluding work in progress) are available via the Internet and/or on request; details are given on the Commission's web-site and in the table below.

Access to Commission documents and information

* The Commission plans to establish a web-site in 1998 (see paragraphs 69-71).

Deliberation and drafting
52. The broad scope and innovative intent of Commission studies mean that production of its reports will rarely be a straightforward process, neither will it be a short process. In cases where studies are taking a longer than average time, the Commission should consider whether to produce a brief progress report to keep interested individuals and organisations informed.

53. Initial decisions about the scope, purpose and audience for a study (paragraphs 21-23) should make it possible for the Commission at an early stage to produce as a working document a tentative outline of the logical structure of its report. This will facilitate decisions about the nature of the information needed and how it is to be gathered. It also provides an essential framework for the Secretariat to plan the Commission's programme of work, including the need for smaller working groups of Members. This structure is reviewed and modified at later stages.

54. Either at full Commission meetings or, depending on the nature of the study, in smaller working groups, Members consider the evidence submitted and material produced by the Secretariat in the light of that evidence. The Chairman (of the Commission or of a working group) determines the way in which evidence is handled, so that Members can decide the proper weight which should be given to individual pieces of evidence. The use of working groups enables the Commission as a whole to cover more ground in the available meeting time, however, groups should neither be convened too rapidly without a clear, tight remit, nor last too long at the expense of collective understanding. Ad hoc working groups, meeting formally only once or twice, may be useful in carrying out narrower tasks.

55. The structure of the intended argument of the report provides the rationale for working group activities, indicates where further information needs to be gathered or views sought, and provides the basis for producing early drafts of material for the report. It is essential, however, that the Commission's thinking should not be constrained by a rigid adherence to the structure provisionally adopted at the outset. As drafting continues, therefore, the structure will evolve to reflect new information and developments and changes of emphasis and interpretation.

56. Drafting normally proceeds through production of individual chapters or groups of chapters. Where a planned chapter or chapters correspond fairly closely to the remit of a Commission working group, it may be sensible for the output from that group to take the form of an initial draft of the chapter(s) in question. In other cases drafts are prepared by a designated person in the Secretariat or by an individual Member with expertise in the relevant subject, with guidance from the Secretary about their relationship to other parts of the structure agreed by Members, and presented direct to the full Commission. At this stage the Commission is concerned with the broad thrust of the report, rather than detailed drafting.

57. As well as their contribution through discussion in meetings, individual Members or small groups of Members make major contributions to the revision and improvement of drafts, either in written form or through discussions of drafts with the relevant person(s) in the Secretariat.

58. An early start on drafting may be an effective way of digesting large amounts of material and focusing the minds of Members on the key issues. Care must be taken to specify in advance what each successive redraft of a particular chapter is intended to achieve.

59. The Commission's reports are valued for the way in which they synthesise and present factual, technical and descriptive material. This factual material gives the Commission's arguments credibility and helps in making its reports comprehensible to the non-expert. Full use should, however, be made of presentational devices (such as text boxes, graphs and figures) in making technical information more accessible; consideration should also be given to placing background material not essential to the flow of the argument in appendices to the report.

60. There should be a clear distinction in reports between facts and authoritative scientific assessments and the Commission's own opinions and policy recommendations offered for consideration.

61. Most Commission reports make formal recommendations addressed to the UK government. There have, however, been exceptions in the Twelfth Report (Best Practicable Environmental Option) (which contained only general conclusions) and the Twentieth Report (the Transport Review) (which contained many expressions of view on specific points, but did not make formal recommendations). In theory, the Commission may address its recommendations to other bodies or sectors of society, for example, industry, professional scientists, individuals, etc. In practice, however, it restricts its advice to those bodies with the power to take action on the basis of its findings, principally central government.

62. Public presentation of the Commission relates primarily to achieving the maximum impact for individual reports and disseminating their messages but also to wider awareness of the Commission and its role.

Publication of reports
63. The Secretariat carries out a number of tasks in the final stages of drafting and in preparation for publication of a report, as follows:

internal checking - authors of individual chapters and the member of the Secretariat with overall responsibility for seeing a report through to publication check information and sources used in the text and update information as necessary;

external checking - the text of the report, excluding concluding and/or summary chapters, is circulated for factual checking to relevant government Departments;

refereeing - two or three experts in the field covered by the report are requested to referee the main text;

detailed editing - to ensure readability and internal consistency;

proof reading;

preparation for the launch - this includes preparation of the news release, and material for the Members directly involved in the launch (visual aids, speaking notes, etc.) and for those attending the press conference.

64. As well as concentrating on the detailed content of the report, the final stages of drafting must also consider carefully how best to present the Commission's work to achieve maximum impact. Commission reports must be accessible; the messages they contain must be clear and well communicated and not be open to misinterpretation. In particular, attention must be given to

how the report's conclusions and recommendations should be presented in the text. This is especially important in cases where the scope of the subject means that numerous recommendations are made. Recommendations should be presented in a user-friendly way, for example by grouping, categorising and/or prioritising them;

preparation of an executive summary within the published report;

dissemination to a wider audience of summaries of the report and its key conclusions and recommendations;

preparation of material for the press attending the launch of the report.

65. Although the launch date of a Commission report cannot by protocol be announced until the report has been submitted to, and seen by, HM The Queen, the Chairman and Secretariat ensure that government Departments and the media become aware some time in advance that a report is going to be published, and of its broad scope. Reports are launched by means of a press conference and question and answer session, with associated press interviews and media appearances, usually by the Chairman.

66. The need for further dissemination of the Commission's findings should be considered for each report, including the case for republication in a less expensive format. Following publication, the Chairman and Members are generally invited to speak at conferences and seminars on relevant topics. Consideration will also be given to the organisation of targeted briefings for different audiences as relevant, for example, for government Ministers or an all-party Parliamentary group, for the European Commission, for specific sectors of industry, or for the general public.

67. The government has undertaken to respond to Commission reports within 6-12 months. Immediately following publication of a report, the Secretary will write to the relevant lead Department drawing attention to that convention. The Secretary, and if necessary the Chairman, will chase such responses if they are late.

68. The Commission monitors coverage of the report in the media and assembles specific responses to reports from NGOs and industry and trade associations. The Commission has instituted a three-year review process for its reports, in which the impact of each report and developments since publication are assessed.

Presentation of the Commission

69. The Commission's web-site The Commission makes statements and produces its reports relatively rarely and, to some extent, has to reinvent itself in the world's eyes at the launch of each report. The world-wide web offers an ideal route for the Commission to establish a more permanent identity in people's minds. A presence on the web helps to fulfil many of the Commission's duties in respect of existing and future statutory and non-statutory requirements for openness and freedom of information.

70. The Secretariat plans to establish a Royal Commission web-site in 1998. It is envisaged that the web-site will contain the following information:

details of the Commission's history, terms of reference and operation and basic contact details;

details of past Commission reports (including short summaries of the key findings), and of relevant government responses;

Commission press releases;

biographical details of Members;

details of the current study, including any current invitation to submit evidence, decisions on terms of reference, coverage or formation of working groups, etc.;

minutes of monthly Commission meetings (excluding confidential material);

guidelines for the conduct of Commission studies;

Annual Report, incorporating a Forward Look statement (see paragraph 73).

71. The web-site will also be utilised to make information collected for Commission studies more widely available. It is therefore envisaged that the web-site should contain:

a list of the individuals and organisations submitting evidence to a study;

a list of research commissioned from consultants.

72. Annual Report From 1998 onwards the Commission will produce an Annual Report. In addition to brief coverage of the Commission's history, terms of reference and operation, and details of the Members and Secretariat, the Annual Report will cover the following topics, either in full or as a statistical summary:

activities of the Commission (meetings, visits, Members' speaking engagements for the Commission, Conference of European Environmental Advisory Bodies, etc.); activities of the Secretariat (seminars/conferences attended, significant meetings held outside of plenary sessions, etc.); progress report(s) on ongoing study(ies), including invitations to submit evidence, press releases and submissions of written or oral evidence; summaries of any Commission reports published during the year; papers/reports commissioned; an Annual Financial Statement (budgets, Annual Stewardship Report, etc.).

73. The Annual Report will also incorporate an annually updated 'Forward Look' statement. The statement will contain a report on the results of consultation on future topics for study and the forward work programmes of other environmental advisory bodies and organisations, and a provisional timetable for ongoing and future Commission studies looking 4-5 years ahead.

Page last updated 2nd June 1998

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