Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he had discussions with the Prime Minister on the impact of private modes of transport including private jets on (a) air pollution and (b) biodiversity before the G7 meeting in Cornwall.

The Government considered this issue and took steps to ensure a sustainable event. We appointed engineering, design and consultancy firm Arup, to help the event achieve ISO 20121 sustainability certification and to deliver a carbon-neutral event by developing a Carbon Management Plan. This included offsetting for G7 and guest leader and staff travel.

The Government is committed to improving the environmental sustainability of its own estates and operations through the Greening Government Commitments (GGCs). As part of these, central Government departments are currently required to report on and reduce the number of domestic flights they take. The latest annual report showed the Government as a whole had reduced the number of domestic flights it took by 28% in 2018-19 compared with the 2009-10 baseline. The Government Fleet Commitment also commits central Government departments to have 25% of their fleet as ultra-low emissions vehicles by 2022 and 100% by 2030. Progress against the fleet commitment will be reported on for the first time in the forthcoming 2019-20 GGC annual report.