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The environmental impact of spending decisions should be published by the Treasury alongside the next spending review, the Public Accounts Committee has recommended whilst criticising slow progress made by the government to make good on promises made in 2011.
A report by the PAC said the government had failed to set out clear objectives to achieve goals in the 25-year environment plan and only has half the indicators in place to measure progress.
It noted targets have been missed to implement key parts of the strategy and the approach to funding measures has been “piecemeal”, accusing Defra and the Treasury of not yet understanding the costs required to meet long-term environmental goals.
The committee recommended that Defra should work with the Treasury to review the total costs and outline how these will be paid for.
The report also said government must do more to factor the environment into all spending decisions and recommended the Treasury publishes analysis to show how the value of environmental impacts has been taken into account and how spending decisions will impact on meeting long-term environmental goals.
The committee questioned the autonomy of the soon-to-launch Office for Environmental Protection and whether it will be able to hit the ground running after its creation was delayed. It said the body should report directly to parliament rather than other offices.
Trade union Prospect said the report highlighted the gap between rhetoric and reality. Deputy general secretary Garry Graham said: “Prospect has been warning that the Environment Agency and Natural England among others, the custodians of our natural environment, lack sufficient funding to do their jobs.”
Prospect said the bodies are unable to compete with private sector salaries and that the agency is at breaking point from underfunding.
“The recent announcement that public sector pay will once again be frozen, having never recovered from ten years of pay restraint, could be the final straw for many skilled workers,” Graham said. “Decades of institutional knowledge and skills are being lost across the country.
“With COP26 on the horizon the government must set an example to the world by demonstrating that investing in nature means investing in the people who protect it.”
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