Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee

Recommendation 5

Third Report - Green Jobs Published 25 Oct 2021 Paragraph 35
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Departments need to understand the delivery costs for their green jobs responsibilities to ensure their spending plans include sufficient allocation for this. Any analysis of environmental skills needs in local government needs to be accompanied by an assessment of the funding requirements for the green jobs and skills that are needed within local authorities to deliver local government’s responsibilities towards the Government’s climate and nature objectives.

From: Environmental Audit Committee, Third Report - Green Jobs (HC 75), paragraph 35, 25 October 2021

Government response

The government responded to the whole report on 20 January 2022 (deadline 25 December 2021).

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government welcomes the Committee's focus on green jobs and skills, points to its Net Zero Strategy and a new Green Jobs Delivery Group, and in places declines to set out the requested plans, costings or measures.

  • A Green Jobs Delivery Group will include ministers from BEIS, Defra, DfE, DWP and DfT alongside an industry co-chair, with further detail "in the new year".
  • On indicative costings for green jobs actions, it says further allocations depend on ongoing policy development, so "it is not possible to set these out to the Committee at this point".
  • On a module on environmental sustainability in every apprenticeship and T Level, it says "we do not believe that a generic sustainability module across every occupational standard is appropriate". Sustainability elements are included "where occupationally relevant".
  • On the Careers Strategy, it says it "currently do[es] not plan to update" it, as it has been superseded by the Skills for Jobs white paper.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error