Select committee inquiry
An environmental scorecard inquiry
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“The National Audit Office (NAO) published a review of Environmental Protection in July 2010 (PDF 624.28 KB), which examined 10 key environmental protection areas. On 16 June 2014 the NAO published a follow up review assessing progress in the same 10 areas. Following on from the 2014 NAO review, the Committee intends to examine progress on key environmental areas, and potential policy levers which could be used to secure environmental improvements. Full terms of reference: An environmental scorecard”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What it found
In the committee's words, from the summary of 5th report - An environmental scorecard ↗
Having examined a range of environmental issues over the course of this Parliament, we have in this report set out our ‘environmental scorecard’ and the policy levers that now need to be more rigorously applied to protect our environment while also promoting sustainable development.
The Prime Minister stated in May 2010 “I want us to be the greenest government ever”.
The Government has made some progress in some areas, including publishing a Natural Environment White Paper in 2011 and establishing the natural Capital Committee. The White Paper set out an ambition for this to be “the first generation to leave the natural environment of England in a better state than it inherited”. It is not possible to measure precisely whether overall such ambitions have been achieved, but it is possible to identify the state of progress in particular areas of the environment. In our scorecard we have assessed biodiversity, air pollution and flooding as ‘red’ risks, and thus areas of particular concern. In none of the 10 environmental areas we have examined is satisfactory progress being made, so the remainder are assessed as ‘amber’.
Emissions and climate change
AMBER
Air pollution
Biodiversity
RED
Forests
RED
Soils
AMBER
Flooding and coastal protection
AMBER
Resource efficiency and waste
RED
Freshwater environment
AMBER
Water availability
AMBER
Marine environment
AMBER
AMBER
Government must commit to improve the situation in all environmental areas. Action is required urgently, and must continue both in this Parliament and over the term of the next and beyond. To be able to do so requires improvements in data, processes, strategy and accountability.
We lack complete data on the state of the environment. The Government should use the development of the UN Sustainable Development Goals as an opportunity to identify and address data gaps and inconsistencies between databases.
What the government said
The government responded on 25 November 2014.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response.
The Government "noted" the Committee's report, said it believes the Committee's assessment of progress is "overly negative", and declined to commit to an overarching Environment Strategy or a new environmental oversight body.
- On Recommendation 8, the Government said "It is not clear that an additional high level overarching strategy would bring added value or bring about enhanced outcomes", pointing to existing strategies such as the Natural Environment White Paper.
- On Recommendation 9, it has "no plans at present" to establish a new statutory Office of Environmental Responsibility or to give such functions to the Natural Capital Committee.
- On the Natural Capital Committee (Recommendation 6), its term has been extended by six months to September 2015, and it will conclude its work by the end of that month, though a future government "may wish to consider" what structures are needed.
- On impact assessments (Recommendation 7), Defra has reviewed uptake of environmental appraisal guidance across departments, and the Government's "intention is to repeat this review in future".
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 2 June 2014 to its close on 25 November 2014.
- Oral evidence 2 sessions
- Report 16 Sep 2014
- Government response 25 Nov 2014
What it recommended 4 recommendations · 5 conclusions
1It is not possible to measure precisely whether, as the Prime Minister intended, this is...
Concluded (the committee's words)
It is not possible to measure precisely whether, as the Prime Minister intended, this is the “greenest Government ever”. It is possible however to assess the state of progress in particular areas of the environment. In none of the 10 environmental areas we have examined is satisfactory progress being made despite the necessary urgency. We have assessed biodiversity, air pollution and flooding as ‘red’ risks, and thus areas of particular concern, in our ‘scorecard assessment’. These are areas where the environment has clearly deteriorated since 2010 or where progress has been at a pace unlikely to put improvement on a satisfactory trajectory by the end of the 2015–2020 Parliament.
2Data on the state of the environment is available through the Biodiversity 2020 Indicators and...
Concluded (the committee's words)
Data on the state of the environment is available through the Biodiversity 2020 Indicators and the Sustainable Development Indicators, providing a useful insight on progress (and deterioration). There are, however, as the Natural Capital Committee have reported, “crucial evidence gaps relating to the condition of individual natural assets”.
3Further efforts still need to be made to ensure environmental considerations are also integrated into...
Concluded (the committee's words)
Further efforts still need to be made to ensure environmental considerations are also integrated into policy-making, not least because of the commitment and leadership that will be required to engage with the development of the UN global Sustainable Development Goals by 2015. Environmental protection requires natural capital—the ecosystem benefits we get from the environment—to be fully taken into account in Government policy-making, both for existing and future policy programmes. That requires the environment to be measured and valued, and for decision-making to be founded on a clear understanding of how policies may help or harm all aspects of the environment.
4Regulation is the essential underpinning of environmental protection.
Concluded (the committee's words)
Regulation is the essential underpinning of environmental protection. Many of those affected welcome regulation that is strong and consistent because it produces a level playing field and greater certainty for business. The Balance of Competencies review has, in the Government’s own words, “increased environmental standards”. Regulation has in some areas been supplemented to good effect by public engagement and voluntary approaches. Fiscal measures however have so far been little used as an environmental policy lever. Overall, the range of policy levers has been piecemeal, without any overarching system for identifying how different approaches might best be used to protect different areas of the environment. And there is no system for holding the Government to account for its overall long-term performance across the 10 environmental areas we have examined in this report, nor for reporting progress on such a broad front.
5Government must commit to improve the situation in all environmental areas, if not in this...
Concluded (the committee's words)
Government must commit to improve the situation in all environmental areas, if not in this Parliament then over the term of the next.
6The Government, as we have recommended previously, should put the Natural Capital Committee on a...
Recommended (the committee's words)
The Government, as we have recommended previously, should put the Natural Capital Committee on a permanent footing to allow it to continue to co-ordinate a programme to improve environmental monitoring data. The Government should use the development of the UN Sustainable Development Goals as an opportunity to identify any data gaps and inconsistencies between databases, to produce a single dataset on the state of the environment. This would … provide a key component of an urgently required overarching Environment Strategy.
7The Government should strengthen systems currently focussed on embedding sustainable development and extend them to...
Recommended (the committee's words)
The Government should strengthen systems currently focussed on embedding sustainable development and extend them to explicitly address environmental and natural capital risks. Specifically, it should renew its programme for auditing and improving departments’ compliance with impact assessment and policy evaluation guidelines, and include in the review of departments’ business plans an explicit scrutiny of potential environmental harms.
8To help bring the required leadership to environmental protection across Government and beyond, the Government...
Recommended (the committee's words)
To help bring the required leadership to environmental protection across Government and beyond, the Government should establish an overarching Environment Strategy to: • set out strategic principles to guide the action needed to improve the quality of protection over the next 5, 10 and 25 years; • include the actions and good practices required in local government (for example in formulating new Local Plans), as well as the actions needed in central Government to help bring those changes about; • facilitate a more informed discussion between central and local government about environment resource funding requirements for local authorities; • encompass a clear assessment of the state of the environment including in each of the 10 environmental areas covered in our report; • identify the research and analysis work that needs to be done and coordinated to fill gaps in the data that that such assessment requires; • map appropriate policy levers to each environmental area and set out a clear statement on the place of regulation, public engagement and fiscal incentives as complementary measures. Such a Strategy should involve, for example, a reconsideration of the scope for greater hypothecation of environmental taxes to support expenditure on environmental protection programmes; • identify how Government, local authorities and the wider community could co- operate to develop consensus on the actions needed; and 54 An environmental scorecard • set out how environmental and equality considerations will be addressed and reconciled in infrastructure and other policy areas across all Government departments.
9As we have previously recommended, the Government should extend the remit of the Natural Capital...
Recommended (the committee's words)
As we have previously recommended, the Government should extend the remit of the Natural Capital Committee beyond 2015 to allow it to reach its full potential and the Government should implement the NCC’s proposal for a 25 year plan. But this will not on its own be sufficient to drive environmentally protective Government action. The government should set up an independent body—an ‘office for environmental responsibility’—whether by adjusting the NCC’s remit or creating a new organisation, to: • review the Environment Strategy we advocate; • advise Government on appropriate targets, including in each of the 10 environmental areas we have examined; • advise Government on policies, both those in Government programmes and new ones that could be brought forward to support the environment; • advise Government about the adequacy of the resources (in both central and local government) made available for delivering the Strategy, and • monitor performance against such targets and regularly publish the results (or publish its audit of such an assessment produced by the Government itself). The proposals for legislation from the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts would address much of this necessary agenda, which we therefore commend to the Government in this Parliament or, given the proximity to the Election, the next.
Evidence
Oral evidence sessions 2
- 16 Jul 2014No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗
- 9 Jul 2014No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗