Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Accepted
We are not convinced that departments are making effective use of the emissions data to...
Recommendation
We are not convinced that departments are making effective use of the emissions data to drive decision-making. Central government and other public sector bodies need to use emissions data to decide priorities and assess the affordability of plans. While the NAO report highlighted examples of good practice, the maturity of decarbonisation plans across the public sector is variable. At a central level, BEIS has not used the wealth of data at its disposal to develop estimates of the potential cost of decarbonising the public sector or to check whether resources are being effectively targeted. For example, it is issuing the £1.425 billion of funding from Phase 3 of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme on a first-come-first-served basis rather than using data to assess whether the funding is reaching the parts of the public sector and activities most in need. It has yet to set out how it will monitor and evaluate the success of the scheme or how it will share good practice so that public sector bodies can learn from one another. Recommendation: BEIS should make full use of the data it collates to plan its decarbonisation activities and establish a process to regularly identify and share examples of good practice and learning in decarbonisation across central government and the wider public sector.
Government Response Summary
The government has based its plans for decarbonising the public sector on the best available data, including good practice case studies. It awards PSDS funding on a first-come-first-served basis which enables quick assessment and balances deliverability considerations.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented The government has based its plans for decarbonising the public sector on the best available data. As decarbonisation maturity increases across the sector, new data will be reviewed and, if appropriate, incorporated into existing modelling. There are also regular mechanisms to identify and share learning through working groups and cross-government steering boards, with high-performing departments leading sessions on best practice. For the public sector more widely, Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) and GGCs case studies highlight good practice, and local Net Zero Hubs offer a resource to share learning with local authorities and local organisations. As the Committee notes, the PSDS awards funding on a first-come-first-served basis. Other mechanisms are being considered which would utilise other data, but these must be carefully balanced against deliverability considerations: the first-come-first-served approach enables applications to be assessed quickly, maximising the time that applicants have funding certainty to support the planning and delivery of their project. Alongside the first-come-first- served principle, the PSDS contains several elements to support funding to be spread fairly across the public sector. Sectoral caps for PSDS funding were introduced in 2022 to support funding distribution across different sectors in line with estimated emission shares. Monitoring and evaluation of the PSDS is being undertaken to check progress against planned milestones, understand how well the scheme is delivering on its objectives, and analyse how the scheme has performed against its intended impacts. Final evaluation synthesis reports will be published in due course.