Sustainability in BIS - Environmental Audit Committee Contents


1 Introduction

1. At the beginning of this Parliament, the Government abolished the Sustainable Development Commission, with the aim of embedding sustainable development in all departments.[1] In February 2011, the Government published Mainstreaming Sustainable Development: The Government's vision and what this means in practice,[2] which described a number of processes to implement that change of approach, and in May 2013 it published a Progress report.[3] The Government's approach since the abolition of the SDC has involved a number of new processes:

  • Departments would be directly responsible for their sustainable development performance, with key policy-making objectives being set out in new Business Plans which would be regularly reviewed by Defra and the Cabinet Office Minister for Government Policy for their adherence to sustainable development principles.
  • The Environment Secretary would sit on the Economic Affairs cabinet committee, to enforce consideration of sustainable development issues across Government.
  • Policy appraisal guidance for departments would be further developed to reflect the needs of sustainable development.[4]
  • New 'Greening Government Commitment' targets would be introduced (replacing the previous 'Sustainability on the Government Estate' targets), with performance overseen by a new Greening Government Sub-committee.
  • Revised Sustainable Development Indicators would be developed to monitor sustainability across Government. Defra published the Government's response to a consultation on the new Indicators in June 2013[5] and the first revised set was published in July 2013.[6]

2. Because of the significance of these changes, in 2010 we made the consequences of the abolition of the Sustainable Development Commission our first inquiry.[7] We concluded that an opportunity existed to reassess and revitalise the architecture for delivering sustainable development.[8] We undertook to monitor the delivery of these changes and their results,[9] and subsequently again took evidence from Defra and Cabinet Office ministers in July 2012 and March 2013.[10] We reported most recently on the progress in embedding sustainable development in June 2013,[11] recommending that the Government:

  • apply the results of an audit of policy impact assessments to challenge departments where they are non-compliant with the new guidance (paragraph 14);
  • use the Business Plan review process to focus departments' attention on the sustainability of their policies;
  • reassess the ambition of new Greening Government Commitment targets; and
  • tackle departments with poor compliance with the Treasury's sustainability reporting requirements.[12]

3. We concluded that while it would remain important for us to continue to monitor the performance of Defra and the Cabinet Office in overseeing the structures to embed sustainable development, it was essential also to examine more directly how other departments were responding to and engaging with the new systems. We therefore decided to examine sustainability of operations, policy-making and governance arrangements in a single department—the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)— as the first in a series of departmentally focused inquiries.

4. The National Audit Office examined the position in BIS for us, and on the basis of its audit they published a briefing report in July 2013.[13] The NAO examined three BIS policy-making case examples—the Regional Growth Fund, higher education funding reform and student fees changes, and the Government's Industrial Strategies initiative. The NAO's audit provided the basis for a session in July when we took oral evidence from BIS officials at the centre of the Department's sustainable development governance systems, as well as officials in BIS and the Higher Education Funding Council for England involved in the three case examples examined. We are grateful to the NAO for its significant and essential support on this inquiry.

5. In this Report we examine the sustainability of operations, policy-making and governance in BIS, and seek to identify wider lessons that other departments and the Government more generally might apply.


1   Environmental Audit Committee, First report of Session 2010–12, Embedding sustainable development across Government, HC 504 Back

2   Defra, Mainstreaming Sustainable Development: The Government’s vision and what this means in practice(February 2011) Back

3   Defra, Government progress in Mainstreaming Sustainable Development (May 2013)  Back

4   Environmental Audit Committee, Fourth report of Session 2010–12, Embedding sustainable development: the Government’s response, HC 877, para 5  Back

5   Defra, New Sustainable Development Indicators, (June 2013) Back

6   Defra, Sustainable Development Indicators (July 2013)  Back

7   Embedding sustainable development across Government, HC 504, op cit  Back

8   ibid. Back

9   Embedding sustainable development: the Government’s response, HC 877, op cit Back

10   Environmental Audit Committee, First report of Session 2013–14, Embedding Sustainable Development: An Update, HC 202 Back

11   Ibid. Back

12   Embedding Sustainable Development: An Update, HC 202, op cit, Summary Back

13   National Audit Office, Departmental Sustainability Overview: Business, Innovation and Skills (July 2013). The NAO also previously produced detailed briefs for us on sustainability in policy evaluation, sustainability reporting and on sustainable procurement (HC 202, para 4). Back


 
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© Parliamentary copyright 2013
Prepared 14 November 2013