Recommendation 4

Skills gaps in departments and arm’s length bodies jeopardise government’s capacity to deliver on its environmental ambitions. Progress towards environmental goals requires skills across government, and particularly in arm’s length bodies who have key responsibility for delivery of the goals. The Environment Agency has a particular risk of skills loss in nuclear and hazardous waste management, partly due to its inability to pay the market rate offered in the private sector. Moreover, there is more to do to make sure workforces are diverse and reflect the communities that these bodies work with. Progress has been made on gender, with the Environment Agency having a scheme in place to help recruit female engineers, and more than half of the Natural England workforce are women, but both bodies acknowledge that there is more work to do in recruiting Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates. Government must identify and fill skills gaps through diverse recruitment strategies to ensure it has the capacity to deliver on environmental goals. Targeted interventions such as the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, initially £40 million and extended in the Spending Review 2020 to £80 million, to create and retain ‘green’ jobs across the economy will also be key to success. Recommendation: The Department and the Treasury should work together to: • establish what skills gaps exist, across the key delivery partners and sectors, which are likely to inhibit government’s progress in achieving its environmental ambitions; Achieving government’s long-term environmental goals 7 • where there are such gaps, develop a realistic plan to close them; and • assess the impact of targeted interventions such as the Green Recovery Challenge Fund on safeguarding ‘green’ jobs.