12 Accepted

The Treasury’s Green Book guidance requires all policy, programme and project proposals to consider environment...

Conclusion
The Treasury’s Green Book guidance requires all policy, programme and project proposals to consider environment and climate impacts, including UK greenhouse gas emissions. The Department noted that this was another means by which the compatibility of departments’ decisions with net zero could be taken into account.20 HM Treasury has recently reviewed the Green Book guidance, due to concerns that the guidance may undermine the Government’s aim to “level up” poorer parts of the UK. The updated Green Book emphasises the importance of demonstrating the fit of a proposed intervention with government’s strategic objectives, such as net zero, and highlighting whether it supports or conflicts with them.21 The Treasury told us that departments, in line with Green Book guidance, should be considering the impact of policies on wider strategic objectives, such as net zero, even if policies were not directly related to climate change.22 16 Qq 5-6, 36 17 Qq 23, 29 18 C&AG’s Report, para 3, 2.11 19 Q 31-33, 36; C&AG’s Report para 10, 2.11 20 Q 32; C&AG’s Report para 2.12 21 HM Treasury, Green Book Review 2020: Findings and response, Box 2.A, para 1.3, 3.5 22 Qq 54, 64 12 Achieving Net Zero
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, noting that Spending Review 2020 guidance required departments to include greenhouse gas emissions in bids, and HMT is reviewing this learning, keeping these issues as a priority for 2021.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: May 2021 3.2 At Spending Review 2020, guidance required departments to include the greenhouse gas emissions of bids, and their impact on meeting carbon budgets and net zero. Guidance also sought qualitative commentary on the impact of delivery of the 25 Year Environment Plan. HM Treasury (HMT) is currently reviewing the learning from this exercise and these issues will remain at the forefront of HMT’s priorities for this year. Information on the 2021 Spending Review will be published in due course. 3.3 HMT uses spending reviews to set departments’ overall budgets. Departments then prioritise within these to make sure they have the skills and capacity to deliver their objectives, including net zero. HMT has provided funding to reflect the challenges of delivering additional net zero programmes and assessing the impact of policy decisions – for example, Spending Review 2020 set out that BEIS’s core resource budget would grow by 3.3 per cent in real terms in 2021-22 relative to 2019-20.
Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age 5.4 yrs
Report published 05 Mar 2021