Recommendation 13

There is no single point of responsibility within government for monitoring overall spend on environmental goals, and neither the Department nor the Treasury yet have a good understanding of the long-term costs involved in delivering the goals. Moreover, while the Department had started an analysis of spend by environmental goal as part of its preparations for the Spending Review 2020, it did not yet have a good breakdown of annual costs. Without a good understanding of the costs of delivering the Plan as a whole, there are risks that decisions about funding allocations are made in a piecemeal way, rather than on the basis of a strategic view of long-term priorities.34 29 Qq 95–96 30 Q 97 31 Qq 48–49 32 Qq 49–50 33 Q 83 34 C&AG’s Report, paras 12, 19, 1.21 12 Achieving government’s long-term environmental goals 2 Skills, impact and regulation Skills gaps