I was going to come to the noble Baroness’s points, and I am grateful to her for raising these issues directly with me previously.
Turning to the amendments, I thank the noble Baronesses, Lady Hayman and Lady Young of Old Scone, and the noble Lords, Lord Stevens and Lord Prior, for bringing this debate before the Committee. There is no doubt that the NHS has a significant carbon footprint. There is no doubt that a poor environment has direct and immediate consequence for our patients, the public and the NHS. There is no doubt that it has an impact on the health of the nation. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, pointed out, the NHS accounts for around 4% to 5% of UK emissions. If we go further, as the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, said, that is 40% of public service emissions. Noble Lords are right to highlight the critical role that the NHS has to play in achieving net zero.
To support that work, NHS England—thanks in part to work already started by the noble Lord, Lord Stevens, who I know has had conversations with my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care—is leading the way through a dedicated programme of work, as many noble Lords acknowledged. This includes ambitious targets for achieving net zero for the NHS carbon footprint by 2045 and for its direct emissions by 2040. This is ahead of the target set by Section 1 of the Climate Change Act 2008; we welcome that ambition and will continue to support the NHS in that.
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In response to the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, on what the NHS and Department of Health and Social Care are doing, as part of this programme of work, under the 2021-22 NHS standard contract, every trust is expected to have a green plan. As NHS England has already made clear in its guidance on green plans, published in June 2021:
“Every trust and every ICS is expected to have a Green Plan approved by that organisation’s board or governing body. For trusts, these should be finalised and submitted to ICSs by 14 January 2022. Each ICS is then asked to develop a consolidated system-wide Green Plan by 31 March 2022, to be peer reviewed regionally and subsequently published.”
I hope the noble Baroness will accept that as some real action.
We would then expect the current ICSs regularly to review and consider progress against their green plan, and in the future for the boards of both the ICB and the ICP to regularly consider where they can go further, faster. If they can meet targets faster, so much the better. If ICBs and ICPs can learn from each other and from best practice, so much the better. As we alluded to in the previous debate, sometimes the solutions are to be found at local level and not necessarily from the top down. If we can learn from the best social enterprises and others, I think we can go a long way.
On the specific question of procurement, the NHS is already publicly committed to purchasing only from suppliers who are aligned with its net-zero ambitions by 2030. Last year, NHS England set its road map, giving further details on the expectations of suppliers to 2030. Once again, I hope noble Lords will accept that as real progress.