Recommendations
9. BIS,
and other departments in a similar position [with Greening Government
commitments on track], should now consider setting for themselves
more ambitious targets to maintain momentum. They should aid transparency
by also presenting the results recast against baselines of its
reducing staffing and estate. (Paragraph 8)
10. The Sustainability
Champion in BIS should make improved performance and greater transparency
on sustainable procurement a priority for action within the Department.
(Paragraph 10)
11. All departments
should examine the NAO's analysis of [sustainability in] policies
in BIS, to produce a similar analysis in their own departments
in order to identify potentially unsustainable policies and to
provide a baseline for reviewing and adjusting those policies.
(Paragraph 15)
12. BIS should revise
its Regional Growth Fund assessment process to incorporate potential
environmental and social costs and disbenefits, and weigh these
fully in considering applications for grants. Defra and the Cabinet
Office should challenge other government departments to ensure
that on any similar grant allocation policies they collect information
on all pillars of sustainable development and fully take it into
account. (Paragraph 21)
13. BIS should review
its Industrial Strategies to ensure that they represent a sustainable
development approach across the 11 sectors as a whole. If necessary,
it should redraft and reissue them to demonstrate where and how
the Government has made any trade-offs between economic growth
and climate change mitigation. (Paragraph 25)
14. BIS should review
its Business Plan, to identify and reflect action commitments
contained in the various Industrial Strategies. (Paragraph 27)
15. Defra and the
Cabinet Office should encourage other departments to study the
experience of BIS's Sustainability Champion and Sustainability
Committee and consider introducing similar arrangements themselves.
(Paragraph 33)
16. The Cabinet Office
should ensure that Civil Service Learning's e-learning module
on sustainability is made available as soon as possible, and it
should then test all departments on their use of it through the
Business Plan review process. (Paragraph 34)
17. BIS should produce
a sustainable development strategy, in consultation with Defra
and the Cabinet Office to identify good practice. Defra and the
Cabinet Office should encourage other departments to do the same.
Such strategies should then form a focal point of the Business
Plan review process. In BIS's case, such a strategy document could
make clear the extent to which sustainability is a strategic priority
for the Department and what resources are needed to embed sustainable
development in policy making. BIS should also encourage all of
its agencies and NDPBs to produce sustainability strategies, and
where appropriate make their production a condition for securing
BIS funding. Again, Defra and the Cabinet Office should encourage
other departments to act similarly. (Paragraph 38)
18. The Government
should reconsider its response to our June 2013 recommendations
on tightening overall compliance on sustainability reporting,
to make that a clear Defra, Cabinet Office and Treasury responsibility.
(Paragraph 41)
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