Recommendation 18

The civil service also needs to ensure it has people with the right skills to address net zero challenges.69 We previously reported that some departments had failed to provide detailed assessments of the climate impacts of their capital expenditure plans for spending review 2020, despite HM Treasury requesting that they do so. HM Treasury told us that the main reason for this was that the relevant capability was concentrated in the Department. HM Treasury recognised that there was more it could do to ensure departments have the necessary tools and capabilities.70 The Department told us that, in conjunction with HM Treasury, it has been providing training to other departments to help them account better for carbon in the assessments they make.71 Separately, we also previously reported that the Cabinet Office acknowledged that some skills are particularly scarce in the civil service, such as the ability to lead large projects. It planned to make upskilling the civil service a key focus of its civil service reform process.72 The Cabinet Office’s 2021 Declaration on Government Reform highlighted the need for, among others, science and project delivery skills in the civil service, albeit without referencing net zero as a unique challenge.73