10
Government and the public sector at all levels must lead by example on air quality...
Recommendation
Government and the public sector at all levels must lead by example on air quality if they are asking businesses and individuals to make changes. There are numerous examples of that already happening in the NHS, local government and other sectors, with some public bodies, for instance seeking to minimise emissions from their own vehicle fleets and their suppliers. This should become standard across the public sector. This would contribute to the Government’s drive to support a Green Recovery discussed in Chapter 5. The Clean Air Strategy should be updated to included measures to reduce air quality impacts from central and local government and other public bodies (directly and from procurement and supply chains). Given the other pressures on budgets, where necessary, extra Government funding should be made available to facilitate this. The Government should also update the Government Buying Standards (GBS) to extend the mandatory requirement to procure only zero tailpipe emissions vehicles, except in exceptional circumstances, across the whole of the public sector by 2025. The Government should also set out in their response to this report how many organisations covered by the existing GBS have used the exemption for exceptional circumstances and why. The Committee looks to HM Treasury to incentivise sustainable public and private transport.
Paragraph Reference
72
Government Response
Not Addressed
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
Achieving our legally binding emissions targets will require action across society, and it is the UK government’s ambition to lead by example. With the wider environment in mind, our commitment to improving air quality extends to improving how we are running our buildings and estates, as well as the sustainable procurement of vehicles, services and cleaning products through our Greening Government Commitments. Through the Clean Air Strategy the Government committed to further robust action to reduce emissions across the government estate. For example, we will ensure 25% of the central government fleet will be ultra-low emission by 2022 and we want 100% of the central government car fleet to be ultra-low emission by 2030. The Environment Agency is evaluating the use of more stringent emissions requirements from their suppliers under their Next Generation Supplier Arrangements. While government departments already report greenhouse gas emissions from their estate and operations under the GGCs, we intend to extend this to reporting and achieving reductions of air pollutant emissions. The Government is developing a new GGC framework for 2021–2025 and aims to publish the new commitments later this year. We agree that all levels of government and public bodies will have a role to play in improving air quality. As we review our Local Air Quality Management Framework (LAQM), we will work across Government to explore how we can strengthen expectations and actions on air quality across the public sector. Through the Environment Bill and revisions to the LAQM framework, the Government is seeking to designate key public bodies as air quality partners required to cooperate with local authorities in the local air quality planning process, including considering actions that can reduce impacts from their own estates and operations.
Source
Inquiry
Air Quality
Report
Fifth report - Air Quality and coronavirus: a glimpse of a different future or business as usual
11 Feb 2021
HC 468
Timeline
Recommendation age
5.3 yrs
Report published
11 Feb 2021