UK Inquiry Tracker

Achieving government’s long-term environmental goals

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 22 Oct 2020 Closed: 19 Apr 2021 Parliament page

In January 2018, government published its 25 Year Environment Plan, setting out its ambition to improve the natural environment in England within a generation: both for the direct benefits this would bring, as well as to support its influence overseas and position the UK as a global environmental leader. The … Read more

1 Recommendation

21 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

3 Letters

1 Event

Activity timeline 7 events

3 Sep
2021

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fortieth report from Session 2019-21

13 Jul
2021

Correspondence

Correspondence from Sir James Bevan, Chief Executive’s Office, Environment Agency, re Environment Agency’s response to the question from Ja…

3 Feb
2021

Report published

Fortieth Report - Achieving government’s long-term environmental goals

13 Jan
2021

Correspondence

Correspondence from Tamara Finkelstein, Permanent Secretary, DEFRA, re Covid funding for zoos, the England Peatland Strategy, and governmen…

13 Jan
2021

Correspondence

Correspondence from Sir James Bevan, Chief Executive, Environment Agency, re Water abstraction, dated 16 December 2020

3 Dec
2020

Oral evidence

Achieving government’s long-term environmental goals

3 Dec
2020

Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House

Achieving government’s long-term environmental goals

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

3 Dec 2020

View on parliament.uk

Achieving government’s long-term environmental goals

David Hill · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Marian Spain · Natural England Philip Duffy · Environment Agency Sir James Bevan · Environment Agency Tamara Finkelstein · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Fortieth Report - Achieving government’s long-term environmental…	HC 927	3 Feb 2021	22	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

22 results

2 Conclusion

Fortieth Report - Achieving govern…

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has the policy responsibility for the environment,...

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has the policy responsibility for the environment, but not the clout to hold other departments to account or manage trade-offs between policy areas. In July 2018, the Environmental Audit Committee recommended that … Read more The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has the policy responsibility for the environment, but not the clout to hold other departments to account or manage trade-offs between policy areas. In July 2018, the Environmental Audit Committee recommended that government needed to do more to ensure that all departments, not just Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, were held to account for oversight of the Plan. But the Comptroller and Auditor General found no evidence of shared ownership of the Plan, with the Implementation Board having no representation from delivery bodies outside of the Department’s own group. Moreover, no other department specifically mentioned the Plan in their single departmental plans for 2019. Government established a new cross- government board for the environment on 2 December 2020, in response to the Comptroller and Auditor General’s finding that joint working between departments on environmental issues was patchy. The Department expects this board will help manage trade-offs between policy areas, but it is not clear how it will decide between competing priorities. All environmental goals are closely linked and require joint working across government. It is therefore crucial that this board has the authority and influence to hold all parts of government to account and has robust processes for evaluating the effectiveness of policies across all departments. 6 Achieving government’s long-term environmental goals Recommendation: After the new cross-government environment board has been in operation for six months, the Department and Cabinet Office should carry out a review and report back to the Committee on the board’s effectiveness to assess whether it has achieved a step-change in accountability and ownership for the environment across government. The review should include whether it has been effective in managing trade-offs between policy areas and in assessing the effectiveness of environmental policies across departments. Show less

Government Response

3. PAC conclusion: HM Revenue & Customs breached its Net Cash Requirement by £726 million.

HM Treasury

Achieving government’s long-term environmental goals

Activity timeline 7 events

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Recommendations & Conclusions

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has the policy responsibility for the environment,...

Government still does not have a good grip of the total costs required to deliver...

Skills gaps in departments and arm’s length bodies jeopardise government’s capacity to deliver on its...

Environmental impacts are still not being taken into account in spending decisions.

We are concerned that the new Office for Environmental Protection will inherit a backlog of...

On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence...

Government has not yet met European Union concentration limits for nitrogen dioxide that had an...

To deliver government’s ambitions as set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Department...

While the Plan sets out a whole-of-government commitment to improve the environment within a generation,...

We asked the Department whether it has sufficient clout to manage trade-offs where there is...

The Department received an additional £1 billion in funding for 2020–21 in the Spending Review,...

The Environment Agency and Natural England have a key role to play in delivering government’s...

There is no single point of responsibility within government for monitoring overall spend on environmental...

Government needs to ensure that organisations have access to the skills and resources they require...

We asked about the diversity of the workforce to deliver these environmental goals, and the...

We asked the Department what its role is in relation to creating and retaining ‘green’...

We asked the Treasury what it was doing to ensure departments factor the environment into...

Treasury told us that the extent to which departments appraise the environmental impact of what...

Treasury conceded that there is a long way to go before accounting for the environment...

As the Office for Environmental Protection is yet to be established under the provisions of...

The interim secretariat will be able to make assessments around reported breaches of environmental law...

In discussing the reporting obligations of the Office, the Department explained that it will report...

Correspondence 3 letters