NHS: Reorganisation

(asked on 28th November 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of progress in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of NHS Trusts; and what steps he is taking to ensure that the NHS Sustainable Development Unit’s mission to embed and promote the environmental, social and financial elements of sustainable development is being followed through across the NHS in England.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 6th December 2017

The Sustainable Development Strategy (2014-2020) for the health and social care sector provides a route map to embed the social economic and environmental sustainability across the National Health Service in England. This strategy was adopted with support from across the entire health and social care system.

The Department, the Sustainable Development Unit and NHS England work together to ensure that the profile and importance of the principles of sustainable development are embedded in national government strategy, such as the recently published Clean Growth Strategy. This expectation is cascaded down through NHS England to providers and commissioners in the form of mandate and message, with impacts measured and reported annually.

The NHS reports on their greenhouse gas emissions within their public annual reports. Between 2007 and 2015, the NHS reduced carbon emissions arising from energy, travel, procurement and commission healthcare services by 11%. Over the last 10 years the health system has reduced the annual carbon emissions from service delivery, supply chain and staff and patient travel by 3.6 million tonnes and saved almost £2 billion in energy costs.

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