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

7 Recommendations

15 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

3 Letters

1 Event

Activity timeline 6 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

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

7 results

2 Recommendation Not Addressed

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

The government's response refers to a PAC conclusion about HM Revenue & Customs' Net Cash Requirement breach, completely failing to address the recommendation regarding reviewing the effectiveness of the cross-government environment board.

HM Treasury

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3 Recommendation Not Addressed

Fortieth Report - Achieving govern…

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

Government still does not have a good grip of the total costs required to deliver its environmental goals and funding so far has been piecemeal. The Department received an additional £1 billion in funding for 2020–21 in the Spending Review … Read more

Government Response

The government's response refers to a PAC conclusion about the Home Office's Net Cash Requirement breach, completely failing to address the recommendation regarding reviewing and outlining total costs for environmental goals.

HM Treasury

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4 Recommendation Not Addressed

Fortieth Report - Achieving govern…

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

Skills gaps in departments and arm’s length bodies jeopardise government’s capacity to deliver on its environmental ambitions. Progress towards environmental goals requires skills across government, and particularly in arm’s length bodies who have key responsibility for delivery of the goals. … Read more

Government Response

The government response does not address the recommendation regarding skills gaps but instead states that HM Treasury breached its Capital Annually Managed Expenditure total by £32 million.

HM Treasury

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1 Conclusion Not Addressed

Fortieth Report - Achieving govern…

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

On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (the Department), HM Treasury, Natural England and the Environment Agency about achieving government’s long-term environmental … Read more

Government Response

The government response does not address the committee's procedural conclusion about taking evidence but instead states that the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy breached its Resource Annually Managed Expenditure total by £4.9 billion.

HM Treasury

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8 Conclusion Not Addressed

Fortieth Report - Achieving govern…

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

To deliver government’s ambitions as set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (the Department) has lead responsibility for all environmental policy areas apart from climate change mitigation, for which the Department … Read more

Government Response

The government response reiterates the origins of the 25 Year Environment Plan and Defra's lead role, noting other government parts also play important roles, without addressing the broader cross-government accountability implied by the committee's reference.

HM Treasury

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10 Conclusion Not Addressed

Fortieth Report - Achieving govern…

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

We asked the Department whether it has sufficient clout to manage trade-offs where there is competition between departments; and how it plans to bring to bear its responsibility for leading government to deliver on the Plan.25 The Department expects that … Read more

Government Response

The government response is truncated and merely repeats a portion of the original committee text, failing to provide any new information or address the underlying concern about managing cross-departmental trade-offs.

HM Treasury

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11 Conclusion Not Addressed

Fortieth Report - Achieving govern…

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

The Department received an additional £1 billion in funding for 2020–21 in the Spending Review, however it confirmed that this includes a previously announced increase in flood defence spending.29 It noted that the increase will allow for significant investment in … Read more

Government Response

The government agrees with the committee's observation on funding but instead of providing the requested breakdown of the £1 billion, it commits to determining and publishing the costs for meeting new legally binding targets with HM Treasury by October 2022, to align with the next Environmental Improvement Plan by January 2023.

HM Treasury

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Government Response AI assessment · 22 of 7 classified

Accepted 11

Accepted in Part 1

Acknowledged 2

Deferred 1

Not Addressed 7

Total 7 recs + 15 conclusions

Correspondence 3 letters

13 Jul 2021 Correspondence from Sir James Bevan, Chief Executive’s Office, Environment Agency, re Environment Agency’s response to the question from James Wild MP, dated 5 July 2021

Parliament page

13 Jan 2021 Correspondence from Tamara Finkelstein, Permanent Secretary, DEFRA, re Covid funding for zoos, the England Peatland Strategy, and government monitoring of cycling, walking and driving, dated 3 December 2020

Parliament page

13 Jan 2021 Correspondence from Sir James Bevan, Chief Executive, Environment Agency, re Water abstraction, dated 16 December 2020

Parliament page