Government Progress in Mainstreaming
T
he report’s executive summary, below, outlines the Government’s continuing work towards fully embedding sustainable development in its policies and
operations.
Sustainable development considers both the impacts and opportunities for driving improvements across the economy, environment and society for current and future generations. In February 2011, Government published its Vision for Mainstreaming Sustainable Development across its buildings and estates, the goods and services that it buys and the policies it makes. It made it clear that sustainable development is the responsibility of all departments. This report sets out the progress made towards the achievement of this vision.
Over the past two years Government has developed a range of policies that are contributing towards a sustainable economy, thriving communities and an improved environment. One of the key principles underlying the Government’s approach to sustainable development is that growing the economy and improving the environment can be mutually supportive.
Sustainable development across government departments Departmental business plans set out the structural reform priorities and the policy and implementation actions departments will undertake to achieve them. All departments have been asked to include sustainable development commitments within their departmental business plans. For the first time in 2011/12 departments were also asked to report on progress meeting these in their Annual Report and Accounts. Many of the reports provided little detail in relation to sustainable development within policy development. To rectify this, revised guidance has been issued for the current reporting year.
Impact assessments are a formal part of the policy development process that requires policymakers to set out the environmental, economic and social costs and benefits of any policy or regulatory proposals. Improvements and revisions to guidance and the impact assessment process in relation to sustainable development were made in August 2011. Government has commissioned a review of how effective these changes have been and therefore how well sustainable development has been incorporated into impact assessments. The initial results indicate that while many assessments
Sustainable Development
are proportionate and reflect sustainable development impacts well, there are still many that miss important impacts or have not applied sufficient rigour in their analysis.
Improvements have been made to departmental capability. From April 2013 assessment of staff performance can include whether they have demonstrated professional behaviours that support sustainable development. Many departments have been driving improvements to their staff’s understanding of sustainable development through training, sharing of good practice and the development of tools.
International efforts towards sustainable development In summer 2012, the United Nation’s Rio+20 summit tackled the critical issue of how countries can grow their economies without destroying the natural resources on which they depend. On 22nd June 193 countries signed up to the outcome document The Future We Want which included commitments to develop Sustainable Development Goals and a global sustainability reporting framework for businesses. The UK is a member of the UN Open Working Group that is tasked with making proposals on Sustainable Development Goals by September 2014.
Greening Government Government published its first Annual Report on Greening Government Commitments in December 2012. These are high level Government commitments for reducing the environmental impacts of its estate and operations by 2015. The first year showed good progress had been made, but with more work to be done. Government continues to press Departments to deliver against their targets.
Government is also working with Departments to ensure that sustainability is factored into how they buy their goods and services to ensure that value for money is reflected over the lifetime of products and services. Several government departments are championing sustainable procurement. The Coalition Programme set an aspiration that 25% of government spend would flow to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), directly and through the supply chain, by 2015. There has been a steady increase in central government’s direct spend with SMEs from just 6.5% in 2009/10 to 10% in 2011/12. SMEs also benefitted from a further 6% in indirect spend through the supply chain.
In February 2011, the Government launched its Vision for Mainstreaming Sustainable Development. Defra has now published Government Progress in Mainstreaming
Sustainable Development, a report on behalf of the Government on what has been achieved so far. Enabling scrutiny
A key element of mainstreaming is to enable scrutiny of Government progress. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has consulted on a package of Sustainable Development Indicators. These can be used to consider trends in economic, societal and environmental measures together and are intended to provide high level transparent measures of whether the country is developing on a sustainable path. The revised set of indicators will be published in summer 2013. The House of Common’s Environmental Audit Committee has held a number of hearings with Defra and Cabinet Office (CO) to review Government’s progress in mainstreaming. The National Audit Office (NAO) has provided briefings on sustainability reporting, appraisals and sustainable procurement to support the Committee’s work. The Committee has now indicated that it intends to widen its scrutiny to consider individual departments.
Progress on mainstreaming sustainable development There has been good progress in mainstreaming sustainable development since the launch of the vision in 2011. This can be seen in the range of policies being developed by departments and the work to drive improvements across estates and procurement. The Business Planning and Annual Report and Accounts cycle will continue to form a central part of the mainstreaming approach and there are a number of tools available to support departments. At the same time it is only two years since the vision launched and it will take time to embed sustainable development fully across government. This can be seen in relation to gaps in sustainability reporting and the continued efforts required to meet Greening Government Commitments. Government will consider the outcome of its review of the effectiveness of sustainable development appraisal guidance and whether further improvements will be necessary. Departments will need to continue to work together to share good practice in mainstreaming sustainable development.
http://sd.defra.gov.uk/ author/sdap-team/
PUBLIC SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY • VOLUME 3 ISSUE 5 17
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