The UK’s ‘green minister’ said that the government’s environmental procurement guidelines were not breached by the use of uncertified plywood in a home office building project.

On June 4 Greenpeace protestors occupied the building site in Marsham Street, London, claiming that the hoarding and shuttering plywood used by main contractor Bouygues was uncertified and based on illegally felled Indonesian timber.

Quizzed by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, however, green minister Fiona Mactaggart said that the episode did not mean that the government had not lived up to its pledges on timber procurement.

She said that when the contract with Bouygues was signed off in March 2002, the government’s procurement rules applied only to timber that came into its ownership in building and other projects.

As the plywood remained in Bouygues ownership and would have been taken away by the company after construction, there was no stipulation in the contract that it should be certified as sustainably sourced.

Ms Mactaggart said amendments had since been made to the government’s sustainable purchasing policy to cover timber like hoardings which remain the property of the contractor. She acknowledged that the government’s policy had been flawed initially, but that the Marsham Street incident had been useful in highlighting “gaps between the intentions of policy and its delivery”.

Asked by committee member Sue Doughty about which certification schemes the government should accept under its procurement rules, government resources and performance director-general Margaret Aldred said the issue was “very difficult”.

“Like many other purchasers of timber, we find it difficult to say which certification regimes are robust. There is not an approved list and this is something where we are looking to DEFRA to develop the policy.”

Home Office head of buildings and estate management Tony Edwards pointed out that DEFRA was setting up a “central point of expertise for timber” which would issue departments with guidance on certification schemes and those which would be approved.

The government’s investigation into the source of plywood used in Marsham Street continues.