Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 40
8th Report - The Seventh Carbon Budget
Published 4 Mar 2026
Environmental Audit Committee The Seventh Carbon Budget All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Government should support a formal, enhanced Parliamentary scrutiny framework for the Seventh Carbon Budget that enables meaningful scrutiny both before approval and throughout delivery, by an annual report on each Department’s progress towards time framed targets. Following the setting of the Sixth Carbon Budget, our predecessor Committee made a comprehensive set of recommendations on how Parliamentary scrutiny of future carbon budgets should be strengthened. We consider that those recommendations remain the most appropriate framework for scrutiny of the Seventh Carbon Budget, and we recommend that the Government implement them in full. In particular, the Government should adopt the approach set out below: • When Ministers announce the proposed level of the Seventh Carbon Budget, they should simultaneously lay before Parliament a draft carbon budget delivery framework, setting out the policies and proposals intended to deliver the budget, as described in Chapters 2 and 3, for scrutiny and debate. Ministers should give notice of a motion under Standing Order No. 118(3)(a) that the draft Order is not to be referred to a Delegated Legislation Committee in the House of Commons, but instead debated on the Floor of the House. • A defined period of three months of Parliamentary scrutiny should elapse between publication of the draft delivery framework and the laying of the draft Carbon Budget Order. While recognising statutory constraints, this period should be sufficient to allow committees to take evidence, publish reports, and engage constructively with Ministers on delivery feasibility and risk. • This scrutiny period will enable relevant House of Commons and House of Lords committees to examine elements of the draft delivery framework within their remits. The Secretary of State for DESNZ, who has principal responsibility for delivery, should agree to appear before the Environmental Audit Committee at an early stage. • The Government should arrange for a debate of
From: Environmental Audit Committee, 8th Report - The Seventh Carbon Budget (HC 1327), 4 March 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 11 June 2026 (deadline 4 May 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government will propose that the seventh carbon budget is set at the Climate Change Committee's recommended 535 MtCO₂e, accepts two parliamentary debate recommendations, and otherwise says it will consider the Committee's delivery recommendations when it prepares the delivery plan.
- On parliamentary scrutiny, the government "accepts" that the draft Order should be debated on the Floor of the House rather than in a Delegated Legislation Committee, and accepts a debate of not less than half a day, working with Business Managers.
- It will publish a CB7 delivery plan "as soon as reasonably practicable" after Parliament decides the budget level, rather than alongside the draft Order, and will "consider" Parliament's views when preparing it.
- On an annual oral ministerial statement on delivery progress, the government says it "will consider whether seeking an oral statement would also be beneficial".
- On international aviation emissions, the government states that on 14 April 2026 it laid a statutory instrument to include the UK's share of international aviation and shipping emissions in Carbon Budget 6, later budgets and the net zero target.