Policy changed on 1 April 2009 and new advice note is available

From April 2009 there has been a step-change in timber procurement policy. Central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies are now required only to procure timber and wood-derived products originating from either legal and sustainable or FLEGT licensed or equivalent sources.

The change in policy was announced two years ago in the Sustainable Procurement Action Plan (SPAP). The old policy had legality of the timber sources as minimum requirement with a preference for sustainable timber, but now sustainability or FLEGT licensing are minimum requirements for all timber purchased by government. FLEGT-licensed timber will be accepted to encourage this European flagship programme that promotes good governance in forest management and the trade of legal timber with Europe, but it is expected that from April 2015, enough progress with FLEGT-partner countries will have been made towards sustainable forest management to be able to specify sustainable timber only.

CPET has been active in raising awareness of this policy and training public buyers and their suppliers on how to comply with it.  Read more about recent CPET activities here and the awareness campaign here.

The public consultation on the policy change ended in September 2007 (find the related documents on the Review and Comments section) and more than 300 comments have fed in to the revision of the UK government’s Timber Procurement Advice Note.

The revised UK Government's Timber Procurement Advice Note (TPAN) (April 2009) is now available. It is the Defra’s document of reference for the policy and informs central government departments in England of the procedures for purchasing timber and wood-derived products in line with the policy.

The TPAN consists of three sections:

·  Section 1:  overview of the timber procurement policy

·  Section 2 : guidance on implementation

·  Section 3: policy implementation in the light of the main stages in the procurement process

and Annexes:

·  Annex A: Glossary of terms

·  Annex B: Model specification text

·  Annex C: Model contract condition

·  Annex D: Model paragraph for inclusion in ITT covering letter

The Timber Procurement Advice Note (April 2009) is available for download here.

Please help us inform your contacts about this change by forwarding the CPET info sheet on policy change available for download here.