Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to measure its carbon footprint.

The department is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and making its estate and operations more sustainable and resilient to the impact of climate change. We report our performance against the Greening Government Commitments in line with agreed timescales. Greenhouse gas emissions are published annually in the Greening Government Commitments annual reports.

The department measures our water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and take steps to minimise waste and promote resource efficiency. We are committed to our target of an overall 56% reduction in our carbon emissions by financial year 2025 compared with 2017/18 emissions.

The department is also due to publish a Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy for the education and children’s services systems in April 2022, which will provide more detail on the steps we will take to measure and manage our carbon footprint.