1.  Departments are not meeting the sustainability standards for the construction and refurbishment of buildings on the government estate. Mandatory environmental assessments were carried out in only 35% of new builds and 18% of major refurbishment projects in 2005-06, and only 9% of projects could be shown to meet the required environmental standards. To lead public debate on environmental and sustainability issues the government should be setting an example in meeting the standards. The Treasury, DEFRA and the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) need to lead and support departments in adopting more sustainable approaches to their work.

2.  Lines of accountability, enforcement and leadership are split across different organisations and departments, and systems for monitoring compliance with environmental standards have been inadequate. The government has recently introduced new initiatives to improve procurement in central government, but responsibilities for securing compliance with environmental standards remain unclear. DEFRA should say how performance against BREEAM targets and the take-up of the Quick Wins will be reported, which department is responsible for doing so, and what DEFRA's own responsibilities are in this respect. The underlying departmental performance data should be made available.

3.  Performance in incorporating sustainability objectives is particularly poor in smaller construction and refurbishment projects, where a full BREEAM assessment is not deemed appropriate. DEFRA should assist departments by developing a lighter-weight alternative to BREEAM, and specifying in more detail when to use different assessment methods.

4.  Departments are failing to implement Treasury guidance and assess costs and benefits of sustainable design options on a whole-life basis, partly because of pressure to reduce initial capital costs. The Treasury should simplify the application of whole-life costing, promote and monitor its take-up by departments, and improve consistency in its application. It should identify mechanisms to allow flexibility on capital spending and actively assist departments to use them in order to achieve significant savings in whole-life costs.

5.  Departments are making poor progress against their environmental targets for estate management, which include significant reductions in water consumption and carbon emissions and the achievement of carbon neutrality by 2012. The Office of Government Commerce should develop standard clauses for outcome-related environmental specifications to be incorporated in all construction contracts, and see that they are adopted by departments.

6.  There is greater scope for many departments to incorporate environmental specifications within contracts for facilities management—for example, in purchasing energy. The development of cross-government contracts offers an opportunity for them to do so, and the Office of Government Commerce should take full account of environmental considerations in negotiating these contracts.

7.  There has been no means of securing compliance with the requirement for Departments to incorporate environmental objectives, including 'Quick Wins', in new construction and major refurbishment projects. The Office of Government Commerce has recently been given responsibility for assessing the adequacy of the procurement process in individual departments. In addition to DEFRA's responsibilities in this area, the OGC needs to find ways of encouraging departments to meet environmental objectives and achieve better take-up of Quick Wins, perhaps including incentives or recognition schemes to encourage greater compliance.

8.  Departments are not assessing properly the operational performance of buildings, and the Property Benchmarking Programme being developed by the Office of Government Commerce currently covers only a small percentage of the central government estate. Post-occupancy evaluations should be carried out on all new properties and major refurbishments, and departments should register all their properties in the Programme so as to achieve the Office of Government Commerce's aim of complete coverage by the end of 2008.

9.  The poor performance against sustainability standards reflects the low priority accorded to this agenda within individual departments. Departmental Management Boards should take responsibility for reporting progress against targets in Sustainable Development Action Plans and annual departmental reports.