Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 13
Twenty-Third Report - Measuring and reporting public sector greenhouse gas emissions
Published 2 Nov 2022
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Measuring and reporting public sector greenhouse gas emissions All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Central government bodies are required to report their emissions in two ways: through the GGCs following guidance set by Defra; and in their annual reports following the Sustainability Reporting Guidance set by HM Treasury.32 These two sets of guidance are meant to be consistent, but there are differences between them which makes departmental reporting of emissions more difficult than it needs to be. For example, HM Treasury’s guidance requires central government bodies to report emissions by scope, whereas the GGCs requires them to divide them in a different way.33 BEIS accepted that these inconsistencies need to be sorted out and agreed to come back to us with a timetable as to when this would be done.34
From: Public Accounts Committee, Twenty-Third Report - Measuring and reporting public sector greenhouse gas emissions (HC 39), 2 November 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 24 February 2023 (deadline 2 January 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with each of the Committee's five recommendations on measuring and reporting public sector emissions, while setting out qualifications on how some will be delivered.
- On standards for measuring and reporting, the government agrees, but says this "may not entail a uniform approach consistency across the whole of the large and varied sector", so detailed guidance may stay with bodies best placed to advise.
- It commits to set out a timetable for further work towards a coherent measurement and reporting framework in summer 2023, which "will be dependent on views from other relevant authorities across the public sector".
- On consolidating guidance, it agrees guidance should be aligned "where possible" but "notes" that different documents may be required for different purposes. BEIS has commissioned work to signpost relevant guidance, to be published in early 2023.
- On scope 3 emissions, work to develop the next set of GGCs targets "will consider if and how" further reporting requirements should be included, taking place throughout 2023-25, with a target implementation date of Autumn 2025.