MPs unsatisfied with Government's response to Sustainability and Treasury Report

3 March 2017

The Environmental Audit Committee have asked HM Treasury to respond again to its conclusions and recommendations set out in its report looking at how the Treasury takes account of environmental sustainability.

Environmental Audit Committee, Chair Mary Creagh MP, said:

"The Treasury is one of the most powerful departments in Government and its approach to sustainability can have a huge impact. Our report found that the Treasury's current approach required improvement and made recommendations about how this could be done."

"In the Treasury's response it is not clear whether it has considered our recommendations or whether it will do anything different as a result. This is deeply disappointing given that our report found the Treasury's performance is far from outstanding."

"The Chancellor must try harder in next week's Budget to show he is taking action to secure sustainable economic growth which stimulates new, innovative environmental industries and jobs."

The Environmental Audit Committee's report, Sustainability and HM Treasury, published in November 2016 found that the Treasury puts short term priorities over long-term sustainability and recommended a number of ways to tackle this problem.

The Committee was disappointed with the Treasury's response which did not address its individual recommendations or some of its key overarching points. It was also not clear how the Treasury would do anything different in future as a result of the Committee's inquiry.

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