Sustainable Development Action Plans (SDAPs)
"All central Government departments and their executive agencies will produce focused sustainable development action plans based on this strategy by December 2005 and will report on their actions by December 2006, for example, in their departmental annual reports and regularly thereafter."
UK Government Strategy for Sustainable Development – Securing the Future, (2005) p.153
Why?
Since March 2005, all central government departments and executive agencies of the UK Government have been required to produce a Sustainable Development Action Plan (SDAP). This requirement was set out in the UK strategy for sustainable development, Securing the Future. The Strategy envisaged SDAPs as a key means to ensure that government sustainable development policy is "converted into action" and that the UK public sector becomes a leading exponent of sustainable development (Securing the Future, p.10).
What?
SDAPs set out the actions that each organisation will take to implement the cross-government commitments agreed in Securing the Future (Securing the Future, p.165). For most organisations, this means outlining the actions that build a sustainable development approach to policies they produce or deliver, people they work with, goods and services which they procure and the operations which they manage.
Requirements
Government organisations are expected to:
• Provide focused SDAPs based on the commitments of Securing the Future
• Be covered by a “live” and current SDAP at all times
• Make their SDAPs publicly available, and notify the SDC when this happens
• Report progress against their SDAP annually, as per the government’s response to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (2006, para. 4.3).
» Sustainable Development Reporting by Government Departments, Environmental Audit Committee (June 2006)
» Government Response to the Committee's Seventh Report of Session 2005–06 on Sustainable Development Reporting by Government Departments
SDC Role
» The SDC's role in SDAP support and scrutiny
The SDC plays a dual role in overseeing the SDAP process:
• Capability-Building (Whitehall team)
The SDC’s Whitehall team works with organisations throughout the SDAP process, helping them to:
• think strategically about the role the organisation can play in achieving sustainable development
• prioritise actions and draft an SDAP
• embed a sustainable development approach into their people, policy and operations.
The team’s support is underpinned by the following guidance document targeted at sustainable development officials across government: Driving Change: Sustainable Development Action Plans (2008).
For more information about the Whitehall team’ role in SDAP support, please refer to the Capability-Building web pages or contact Debbie Dickinson on 0207 270 8674.
• Assessment (Watchdog team)
The Watchdog team operates in the post-publication phase of the SDAP process. It keeps track of which departments and executive agencies are meeting the SDAP reporting requirements, and provides scrutiny of SDAPs and progress reports. It also provides guidance to departments/agencies on preparing an SDAP progress report.
This scrutiny can include:
• Assessing the quality and content of SDAPs and selected SDAP progress reports
• More in-depth assessments of selected organisations' approaches to SDAPs, or of selected issues
• Maintaining a public record on the SDC’s website of SDAP and Progress Report publication dates to ensure transparency and public accountability.
Most Departments and some Executive Agencies published their first SDAP in 2005-2006. The SDC assessed these plans in November 2006 (Off the Starting Block).
Departments and Agencies reported progress against the commitments in their SDAPs between May-September 2007. The SDC published commentaries on these reports.
» Departments’ and Agencies’ progress reports, with SDC’s commentary.
Many Departments and Executive Agencies have now published new SDAPs. These should be available on their own websites. The SDC will continue to monitor the quality of SDAPs and the progress made against them, and the findings will be published on this website.
If you have questions about the assessment of Sustainable Development Action Plans, please contact Rachel Hurle (Policy Analyst).
