To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much and what proportion of its waste her Department recycled in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08. (266778)

Central Government Departments and their executive agencies are required to report performance data on the proportion of waste recycled on their office estate annually as part of the Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG) reporting process. The latest assessment of Government's performance against these targets was published by the Sustainable Development Commission on 12 December 2008

http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/sdig2008/

We reported 44 per cent. and 25 per cent. of waste was recycled in 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively. Direct comparisons between these two years cannot be easily drawn as the data were extrapolated across the estate using a very small sample of UK Border Agency buildings plus Home Office headquarters. We are currently seeking a rebaselining of our data to a period with more representative and comprehensive data.

The figures for Home Office Headquarters on its own for 2006-07 and 2007-08 are as follows: