Lord Deben was Chairman of the UK's independent Climate Change Committee. He also chairs the sustainability consultancy Sancroft International, recycler Valpak,[4] and PIMFA (Personal Investment & Financial Advice Association). He is a director of The Catholic Herald and the Castle Trust – a mortgage and investment firm.[5][6] He is a trustee of climate change charity Cool Earth,[7] alongside the ocean conservation charity, Blue Marine Foundation.[8]
In 1979, he returned to the House of Commons, securing Eye in Suffolk, following the retirement of veteran Tory MP Harwood Harrison. He held the constituency and its successor Suffolk Coastal until his retirement from the Commons in 2010.
As Environment Secretary he introduced the Environment Act 1995 and the Landfill Tax, which was the first such environmental tax in the UK. The BBC Wildlife magazine described Gummer as the "Environment Secretary against which all others are judged",[11] placing him as one of its top ten environmental heroes. In 1997, he was also awarded the Royal Society for the Protection of BirdsMedal,[12] and was described by Friends of the Earth as "the best Environment Secretary we've ever had".[13]
He had responsibility for food safety during the mad cow disease epidemic in 1989–90 which eventually claimed 178 British lives. At the height of the crisis in May 1990, he attempted to refute the growing evidence for BSE/Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease by offering his four-year-old daughter Cordelia a burger in front of press cameras, which she declined but he consumed during a constituency event.[14][15][16][17]
Because of his environmental credentials, in 2005 David Cameron asked Gummer to chair the Quality of Life Policy Group with Zac Goldsmith as his deputy.[20]
In 2009, Gummer was involved in the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal, after claiming £36,000 for gardening over four years, as a parliamentary expense. Although the claims were encouraged and initially approved by the Parliamentary Fees Office, rules state claims should only be made on expenses essential to parliamentary duties. He repaid £11,538 for gardening and household bills and donated £11,500 to charity, saying that he was paying above the minimum required in order to demonstrate "corporate social responsibility" for the expenses system.[citation needed] Subsequently, the Legg Report showed that 343 MPs had been asked to repay some money with Gummer paying the seventh highest figure.[21][22]
In September 2012, Lord Deben was confirmed as Chairman of the UK's independent Committee on Climate Change, succeeding Lord Turner. The committee advises the UK Government on setting and meeting carbon budgets and on preparing for the impacts of climate change. He was due to step down at the end of June 2023.[26]
Personal life
Lord Deben has been married to Penelope Gardner since 1977, and lives at Winston Grange, a Grade II listed property in Suffolk.[27][28] They have four children, including Ben Gummer, who was MP for Ipswich from 2010, until he lost his seat in 2017.
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1990: Christianity and Conservatism, by John Gummer
1997: Green Buildings Pay, edited by B. W. Edwards, foreword by John Gummer, Spon Press, ISBN0-419-22730-X
1998: From Earth Summit to Local Agenda 21: Working Towards Sustainable Development, edited by William Laffery, Katarina Eckerberg, William M. Laffery, foreword by John Gummer, Earthscan Publications, ISBN1-85383-547-1
1998: Precision Agriculture: Practical Applications of New Technologies, by John Gummer and Peter Botschek, The International Fertiliser Society, ISBN0-85310-062-4
^Castle, Stephen (27 August 1995). "Profile: John Gummer: Not as daft as he acts He can charm and he's lucky, so what holds him back?". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014. JOHN SELWYN GUMMER was born into a church family in Stockport in 1939. His father, Canon Selwyn Gummer (the sons were given his Christian name), was a vicar there, later becoming Canon of Rochester Cathedral. They remain close: Canon Gummer lives with the Gummers and invariably appears in the Commons to hear environment questions. A younger brother, Peter, is now chairman of Shandwick, one of the world's largest public relations firms and a paid-up member of the Tory great and good.
^"Company Structure". Valpak. 16 March 2014. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014. Since then we have expanded our services to cover wider areas of sustainability including waste management and recycling, carbon management, energy management and international compliance. … Board Member Position The Rt Hon John Gummer Lord Deben
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