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Select committee inquiry

Inquiry into sustainability in the Home Office

Closed

Environmental Audit Committee · Opened 24 March 2014 · Closed 2 December 2014

3 recommendations · 11 conclusions
Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

What the inquiry looked at

“This inquiry examined the integration of sustainability in the Home Office’s policy approach, governance, and operations, including procurement. It reviews progress against the ‘Greening Government Commitments’, the role of the department’s Sustainability Champion, and its policy approach on Wildlife Crime and crime prevention. Terms of reference: Sustainablility in the Home Office”

The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.

What it found

In the committee's words, from the summary of 4th Report - Sustainability in the Home Office ↗

This report assesses the Government’s progress in embedding sustainable development in the Home Office. It follows on from a similar inquiry last year on Sustainability in BIS.

The Home Office appears to be on track to meet the Government’s sustainable operations targets for departments, in part by reducing the size of its estate, but also by effective use of payment-by-result contracts. It has achieved the reductions set for water, paper and waste.

It is making good progress on reducing carbon emissions, despite emissions from travel increasing significantly.

The Home Office uses a ‘CAESER’ tool to highlight sustainability to suppliers and encourage them to improve their performance. The Government should widely adopt this tool for all major suppliers. The Home Office needs to ensure that all contracts include specific sustainability criteria and that performance on these is actively monitored and managed. It should address energy efficiency in its contracts for asylum accommodation.

Crime prevention is an important part of sustainable policing, as it reduces future social and environmental costs. Whilst the Home Office is taking steps to understand the carbon impact of crime, the Government’s policies to remove housing design standards risk less sustainable outcomes. It should ensure that the full environmental and social costs of such decisions are analysed in policy appraisal.

The Government has led international efforts to tackle wildlife crime. It needs to commit long-term funding for these efforts, and further improve the quality of data on recorded and reported offences.

Like BIS, the Home Office has a senior ‘sustainability champion’. All departments should ensure that they have such a post. All staff with sustainability in their job descriptions should undertake the new e-learning sustainability training, and all new civil service staff complete it as part of their induction.

The Home Office should review police procurement spend to introduce new areas for sustainability standards which could be covered by national procurement frameworks. It should also actively explore ways that its procurement can promote wider social impacts.

What the government said

The government responded on 2 December 2014.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response.

The government responds to the ten recommendations of the report on sustainability in the Home Office, setting out where it is taking action, where it says matters rest with others, and where it is awaiting other work before deciding.

  • On wildlife crime funding, it notes the additional £544,000 committed over the current spending review period, but says it is "not able to pre-empt the outcome of the next spending review".
  • On wildlife law, it agrees the legislation "could be modernised and simplified" and will consider the treatment of wildlife crime offences in light of the Law Commission's final report at the end of the year.
  • On sentencing, it says sentences are "a matter solely for the courts", which are independent from Government.
  • On procurement, it does not mandate particular tools such as CAESER, as requiring one "could stifle competition". The Home Office will publicise a CSR procurement guide, and work is underway to set sustainability indicators for the COMPASS asylum accommodation contracts.

Read the government's response ↗ Read the report ↗ Report an error

How the inquiry ran

Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 24 March 2014 to its close on 2 December 2014.

  1. Oral evidence 30 Apr 2014
  2. Report 12 Sep 2014
  3. Government response 2 Dec 2014

What it recommended 3 recommendations · 11 conclusions

1As we stated previously, we are concerned that the Government’s current de- regulatory approach on...
Concluded (the committee's words)
As we stated previously, we are concerned that the Government’s current de- regulatory approach on housing standards will produce less sustainable outcomes in future years. It is important that the full environmental and social costs of such decisions are analysed in policy appraisal and minimised wherever possible.
2We are pleased by the leadership that the Government has shown to promote international action...
Concluded (the committee's words)
We are pleased by the leadership that the Government has shown to promote international action against the illegal trade in wildlife, including the recent London Conference. It is important that this momentum is maintained to ensure that strong words are translated into concrete and sustained action to tackle wildlife crime.
3The Home Office has significantly reduced emissions from its offices, including through reducing the size...
Concluded (the committee's words)
The Home Office has significantly reduced emissions from its offices, including through reducing the size of its estate and by introducing performance-related contracts. However, it still has a large number of buildings with poor energy performance, and it should take steps to improve the efficiency of these.
4Carbon emissions from travel have increased significantly in the Home Office in recent years.
Concluded (the committee's words)
Carbon emissions from travel have increased significantly in the Home Office in recent years. Whilst it can point to operational reasons for this increase, it is unclear whether its travel guidance is being followed in all cases. Its investment in video conferencing facilities will have highest environmental benefits where video meetings replace face-to-face meetings, and so it is important that managers rigorously challenge the need for staff travel.
5The Home Office undertakes policies and programmes with a range of social and environmental impacts,...
Concluded (the committee's words)
The Home Office undertakes policies and programmes with a range of social and environmental impacts, and directs staff to follow guidance on considering sustainability as part of policy appraisal and impact assessment. It should ensure that sufficient time and resources, including high quality internal challenge and review, are spent on more complex cases to ensure the full range of impacts are assessed and incorporated into the design of policies.
6Long-term action is needed to tackle wildlife crime, and it is important that the Government...
Concluded (the committee's words)
Long-term action is needed to tackle wildlife crime, and it is important that the Government sets out a vision for the Wildlife Crime Unit with long-term funding maintained and at least increased with inflation.
7The Government should keep wildlife crime sentencing under review and be ready to facilitate clear...
Recommended (the committee's words)
The Government should keep wildlife crime sentencing under review and be ready to facilitate clear guidance for the judiciary to ensure that wildlife crime is punished with appropriately strong penalties.
8We welcome the steps that the Government has taken around data coding to ensure wildlife...
Concluded (the committee's words)
We welcome the steps that the Government has taken around data coding to ensure wildlife crime is a separate statistic. However, a more detailed publicly available database would provide greater transparency. Once the Government has received the Law Commission’s report on modernising wildlife law, it should work with stakeholders to design a clearer and more comprehensive system of recording and reporting.
9The Home Office is making good progress towards achieving the Greening Government Commitment targets.
Concluded (the committee's words)
The Home Office is making good progress towards achieving the Greening Government Commitment targets. However, it needs to maintain progress and improve its performance on emissions from travel. Going forward, it should work with Defra and the Cabinet Office to prepare itself for future targets. These should include indirect, or ‘scope 3’, emissions and targets on a ‘per unit’ basis to more accurately measure the overall efficiency of departments’ operations.
10The Home Office CAESER tool provides a useful way of engaging suppliers on their sustainability.
Recommended (the committee's words)
The Home Office CAESER tool provides a useful way of engaging suppliers on their sustainability. The Government should incorporate the full version of the CAESER tool within its sustainable procurement portal, to ensure that all major Government suppliers complete it. However, the CAESER tool is not sufficient on its own to ensure suppliers comply with sustainable procurement standards. The Home Office needs to introduce a robust process for ensuring all contracts include sustainability criteria and performance indicators and the delivery of commitments is actively managed. The Home Office should ensure that the sustainability indicators for the COMPASS asylum accommodation contracts are agreed as soon as possible.
11The Home Office should set minimum contractual standards and work with other Government Departments such...
Concluded (the committee's words)
The Home Office should set minimum contractual standards and work with other Government Departments such as DECC to encourage landlords of asylum accommodation to invest in energy efficiency improvements.
12The Home Office should review police procurement spend to introduce new areas for sustainability standards...
Recommended (the committee's words)
The Home Office should review police procurement spend to introduce new areas for sustainability standards which could be covered by national procurement frameworks. It should also actively explore ways that its procurement can promote wider social impacts.
13The role of a senior-level ‘Sustainability Champion’ is important for embedding sustainability and giving organisational...
Concluded (the committee's words)
The role of a senior-level ‘Sustainability Champion’ is important for embedding sustainability and giving organisational leadership and all departments should have one. Whilst the ‘Champion’ does not need to be a sustainability specialist, it is important that they have a good knowledge and practical experience of the issues involved.
14It is important that high-quality training material is available to support staff in considering sustainability.
Concluded (the committee's words)
It is important that high-quality training material is available to support staff in considering sustainability. This new training course appears to be a useful resource, and the Home Office should ensure that all staff with sustainability in their job descriptions should undertake this role. Additionally, we would like to see all new Civil Service staff undertaking this training, as part of their induction.

Evidence

Oral evidence sessions 1