5 Governance and accountability
Variations in departmental performance
41. Even in areas where progress against Sustainable
Operations on the Government Estate (SOGE) targets is good overall,
there are still significant differences in departmental performance.
On emissions from road travel, for example, the overall reduction
against the baseline year is 10.3%. The best performing central
department, the Treasury (whose figures include the Royal Mint),
reduced emissions by 41.7%. The worst performing, the Department
for Children, Schools and Families, recorded an increase in emissions
from road vehicles of 16.3%. The department's own commentary on
its performance made no mention of this poor record.[45]
Andrew Lee, Director, Sustainable Development Commission (SDC)
acknowledged that one of the SDC's key priorities was to improve
consistency across departments.[46]
The graphs of departmental performance published in the Update
to OGC's Delivery Plan also showed that there was little consistency
of performance over time.[47]
In many cases, departments improved their performance one year
only to deteriorate the next.
42. We asked the SDC to comment on the reasons
for the variations in departmental performance. Minas Jacob suggested
that the absence of a pan-government strategy on travel, for which
the SDC had been calling for a number of years, explained the
large variation in departmental performance against the target
for reducing emissions from road travel.[48]
More generally, the SDC identified a number of possible factors
that it was investigating, including leadership, resources, the
extent to which staff understood that sustainable development
was part of their objectives, and the extent to which sustainable
development was a mainstream part of a department.[49]
43. It is perhaps inevitable
that there should be variations in departmental performance against
the SOGE targets, but the scale of variation recorded is evidence
that something is wrong. It is vital that the Centre of Expertise
in Sustainable Procurement, overseen by the Sustainable Procurement
and Operations Board, provides centralised co-ordination to ensure
that all departments are maximising their capacity to meet their
SOGE targets. We urge the Government to continue to work with
the Sustainable Development Commission to improve the ways in
which best practice is shared between departments.
Executive Agencies
44. It is mandatory for Executive Agencies to
report their performance against the SOGE targets. Last year,
we concluded that:
We find it unacceptable that 15% of Executive Agencies
do not report performance against their Sustainable Operations
on the Government Estate targets, even though this is mandatory.
OGC must ensure that all Executive Agencies report to the SDC
each year.[50]
We had hoped to see a significant improvement in
the 2007-08 reporting period. Instead, the SDC reports that 16%
of Executive Agencies did not report their performance.[51]
In its response to the report we published last year, the Government
assured us that:
CESP will be working with departments to identify
gaps in reporting, raising any exclusions with permanent secretaries
and developing action plans to address any barriers which may
currently prevent an executive agency from meeting the reporting
requirements.
45. We deplore the continuing
failure of a significant portion of Executive Agencies to report
their performance against their Sustainable Operations on the
Government Estate targets. The ability of the Centre of Expertise
in Sustainable Procurement to ensure that Executive Agencies report
their performance will be an important test of the effectiveness
of the recent changes made to governance arrangements. We see
no reason why all Executive Agencies should not report their performance
against the SOGE targets for the 2008-09 period. We will be pursuing
any compliance failure with the relevant Chief Executive directly.
Changes to governance structures
46. The Government has recently introduced a
number of changes in the governance of its sustainability programme.
Budget 2008 announced the creation of the Centre of Expertise
in Sustainable Procurement (CESP), situated within OGC. The Government's
response to the 6th Annual SDiG assessment (2006-07)
said that CESP would:
Address the need for stronger integration between
the government's action on procurement and the government estate
and the drive to achieve SOGE targets and SPAP commitments through
strong cross-Whitehall collaboration.[52]
It set out CESP's objectives as follows:
- to provide stronger central
coordination of performance management, and to provide guidance
and support to help departments rapidly develop capability and
capacity to deliver out commitments;
- to work with departments to draw up a delivery
plan with milestones and a trajectory for the delivery of the
government's SOGE targets and SPAP commitment, to be published
in summer 2008;
- to take account of all the recommendations of
the SDC report and, in the delivery plan, lay out timescales for
their delivery;
- to set out the actions required to counter the
barriers that stand in the way of further progress in government
and to raise government's capability and leadership in sustainable
procurement and operations.[53]
47. The Government response to the 6th
Annual SDiG assessment also announced the creation of a new post
of Chief Sustainability Officer. In addition, it reported that:
The Cabinet Secretary has announced that sustainability
of the government estate is one of his four corporate priorities
and that all permanent secretaries will have objectives relating
to their department's performance against the SOGE targets for
2008-09.[54]
We welcomed these developments in our last report
on this issue, noting that "We expect this to have a tangible
effect on the forcefulness and coherence of departments' response
to these issues".[55]
The evidence submitted to this year's inquiry does not suggest
that our expectations have been realised. We asked the SDC to
comment on the effects of the inclusion of sustainability goals
in the personal objectives of permanent secretaries. Minas Jacob,
Team Leader, Watchdog, told us:
I have not seen any evidence that that has made a
difference. It is good to see that at least they have them now
after three or four years of us requesting them, but we have not
actually seen what difference that has made.[56]
48. Government witnesses told us that these changes
had had a positive effect. William Jordan said that "this
agenda has become much more salient in central Whitehall since
the Cabinet Secretary declared this to be a corporate priority
and put these personal objectives in place for permanent secretaries."[57]
He told us that he and the chief executive of OGC saw permanent
secretaries three times a year for one-to-one meetings in advance
of the Commercial Delivery Board, and that the question of sustainable
operations and performance against the SOGE targets was addressed
during these meetings. We hope to see the effects of this in the
2008-09 reporting year.
49. The inclusion of sustainability
goals in the personal objectives of permanent secretaries was
an important gesture. But it seems to have remained no more than
a gesture. There is little evidence to suggest that this has had
any effect on departments' efforts to achieve sustainability.
We intend to examine the performance of permanent secretaries
who do not meet their targets in 2008-09, and invite them to explain
their performance to us.
Ministerial responsibility
50. Last year we recommended that one minister
should have clear overall responsibility for sustainable operations.
The Government accepted this recommendation and explained that
"The lead Minister for this work was appointed in August
and is the Cabinet Office Parliamentary Secretary".[58]
We asked the SDC what difference this appointment had made. Farooq
Ullah told us that:
I think the SDC would like to know exactly what the
role of that Minister is and have it very well spelt out. To date
we have not really seen a lot of presence of the Minister in this
work and I think that could be stepped up as well. This is one
clear example of this high-level leadership we have talked about
where the minister now really does need to show his presence and
lead by example as well as giving that motivation.[59]
William Jordan, Chief Sustainability Officer, OGC,
told us that the principle of having a Cabinet Office Minister
responsible for this agenda sent a strong signal to civil servants
about the important of sustainable operations.
51. A meaningful commitment
to the sustainability of government operations must come from
the highest level. If the question of sustainable operations is
to carry real weight within government, it is vital that the Minister
responsible shows active leadership. We expect to see solid evidence
of the Minister's commitment to this agenda when we next inquire
into this subject. We recommend that the Minister responsible
for this agenda should take a more active role in the oversight
of performance management by the Sustainable Procurement and Operations
Board.
52. It is not only the Minister responsible for
sustainable operations on the government estate, however, who
needs to demonstrate leadership on sustainable development. This
engagement is important not only in relation to departments' efforts
to meet the targets laid out in the SOGE Framework, but is also
crucial in ensuring that the operational impacts of government
remain closely linked with the policy agenda. Andrew Lee told
us that this is "an area that needs very strong linkage that
is not being linked at the moment as well as it should be".[60]
He also told us that the governance that existed in terms of policy
on sustainable development was less clear than that which existed
on sustainable operations; he said that the two needed to be coupled
together "at the highest level" and that there needed
to be greater clarity about accountability.[61]
53. We asked the SDC for their assessment of
ministerial involvement with sustainable operations. Andrew Lee,
Director, told us that:
There needs to be much clearer ministerial engagement
in this agenda, particularly for example with the sustainable
development ministers working across government departments.[62]
He said that bringing the sustainable development
ministers together with "a real, substantive agenda"
could make a real difference in building some "championing
at ministerial level across departments of what could be achieved".[63]
54. It is at ministerial level
that the link between policy and operations is forged. We urge
sustainable development ministers to work more closely together
to ensure that there is a coherent and co-ordinated approach to
sustainable development across government. The Government must
lead by example by putting sustainable development at the heart
of a consistent and effective approach to both policy and operations.
45 Sustainable Development Commission, Sustainable
Development in Government 2008, December 2008, http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications/downloads/CO2vehicles.pdf Back
46
Q 13 [Mr Andrew Lee] Back
47
Office of Government Commerce, Sustainable Procurement and
Operations on the Government Estate: Delivery Plan Update,
December 2008 Back
48
Q 13 [Mr Minas Jacob] Back
49
Q 13 [Mr Andrew Lee] Back
50
Environmental Audit Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2007-08,
Making Government operations more sustainable: A progress check,
HC 529, para 50 Back
51
Sustainable Development Commission, Sustainable Development
in Government 2008: Challenges for Government, p. 49 Back
52
Cabinet Office, Defra, and OGC, Government Response to the
Sustainable Development Commission SDiG Report 6, March 2008,
p. 3 Back
53
Cabinet Office, Defra, and OGC, Government Response to the
Sustainable Development Commission SDiG Report 6, March 2008,
p.3 Back
54
Cabinet Office, Defra, and OGC, Government Response to the Sustainable Development Commission SDiG Report 6, March 2008,
para 15 Back
55
Environmental Audit Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2007-08,
Making Government operations more sustainable: A progress check,
HC 529, para 65 Back
56
Q 27 Back
57
Q 57 Back
58
Environmental Audit Committee, Eighth Special Report of Session
2007-08, Making Government Operations More Sustainable: Government
Response to the Committee's Seventh Report of Session 2007-08,
HC 1126, para 23 Back
59
Q 29 Back
60
Q 18 Back
61
Q 28 Back
62
Q 18 Back
63
Q 30 Back
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