Tabled by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to
ensure government departments and other public bodies have regard
to the latest National Audit Office guidance Climate change risk:
A good practice guide for Audit and Risk Assurance Committees,
published on 5 August.
(Lab)
My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend and with his
permission, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in his name
on the Order Paper.
(Con)
My Lords, the National Audit Office is the primary distribution
channel for this guidance, publishing directly on its website to
maintain its independence from the Government. The NAO presented
its findings to officials at the heads of risk network event on 7
September and will present the guidance at the government
internal audit agencies event for audit and risk assurance
committee members on 4 November. The Government Finance Function
promoted the guidance through news articles on its digital
platform, OneFinance.
(Lab)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that, but this NAO report
examined the audit and risk committees of public organisations
and found that over half of them do not have a climate or
sustainability risk policy. Does he agree that it is an urgent
issue that this gap in public governance is at odds with the
Government’s net-zero strategy? Also, the NAO reported in early
August. How many audit and risk committees have adopted such
policies since then?
(Con)
I am aware of the noble Lord’s question to the extent that the
Government are very conscious of the importance of climate change
risk and governance. In April 2021, the Government’s internal
audit agency published its cross-government insight on
sustainability, which offered recommendations on governance
structures having accountability for climate change risks. The
Treasury publishes the Orange Book and the Managing Public Money
guidance on risk management for central government. Further
support is offered by the risk management centre. I will write to
the noble Lord regarding his specific question on the
take-up.
The Lord
My Lords, following the recent Dasgupta review, then Government
committed to incorporating nature into the national accounts and
improving guidance for embedding environmental concerns into
policy-making processes. Can the Government provide an update on
the timescale for this work?
(Con)
The right reverend Prelate will know that Defra leads on
environmental matters and on the greening government commitments,
or GGCs, the UK Government’s ambitions to improve the
environmental performance of its own estate and operations. We
expect the greening government commitments to be published in the
very near future.
The Lord Speaker ()
The noble Lord, , is not present, so I call
the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer.
(LD)
My Lords, many Members here sit on boards and know, as I do, that
however good the risk assessment process, change is driven only
where a named senior executive is responsible. How many
government departments and other public bodies have a named
senior executive responsible for action on climate change and
climate change risk?
(Con)
The noble Baroness is right. I assure her that Managing Public
Money and the Orange Book require the board of each central
government organisation actively to recognise risks and direct
the response to these risks, but it is for each accounting
officer, supported by the board, to decide how. The board and the
accounting officer should be supported by an audit and risk
assurance committee to provide proactive support in advising.
Regarding the question asked by the noble Baroness on the numbers
involved, I will write to her.
(Lab)
My Lords, I have been privileged to head a couple of nationalised
industries and I have always believed that all public bodies have
a general duty to enhance the general good. Surely there is no
greater general good than the achievement of net zero. Does the
Minister believe that the NAO guidance recognises this and, if
so, where in the guidance is the cross-government co-operation
sufficiently mandated?
(Con)
Notwithstanding the NAO guidance, the Government continue to
publish their own guidance on climate change risk, including
digital articles and blogs and cross-government insights, as well
as updates to existing guidance. The Government remain alert to
climate change risks when publishing new or updating existing
guidance. I assure the noble Lord that the Treasury requires all
departments to adhere to the Green Book guidance when providing a
business case.
(GP)
The Treasury is one of the two government departments that is
excluded from climate change commitments. I wonder if that is
part of the problem with it understanding the whole issue of the
climate emergency. When I talk to people who sit at the other end
of the building, from all sides they say that the Treasury is the
biggest block to putting in climate change measures that will
help to preserve people’s health and the planet’s health. I am
wondering whether the Treasury is unable to calculate the cost of
inaction, because that is the big problem. If it does not
understand that inaction will cost more than taking the right
actions, it is unable to do its job properly. I would like to
offer the Treasury some Green Party help. We have superb
economists who can explain it very simply to the Treasury so that
it can understand that doing nothing is the worst possible
option.
(Con)
I am always happy to listen to the noble Baroness. Regarding the
Government’s actions, she will know that it is completely the
opposite of doing nothing. We have an enormous agenda. The
Government have stated their ambition that we should be the first
generation to leave the environment in a better state than we
found it. I referred earlier to the GGCs. She asked about the
role of the Treasury. We are mobilising £26 billion of government
investment directly from the Treasury into the green industrial
revolution. We have worked closely with the other departments to
develop the net-zero strategy, with which she will be familiar,
and our own net-zero review, published alongside this, highlights
the factors to be taken into account.
