"Policy vacuum" and "lack of leadership"
The UK government's strategy on sustainable travel operates in a "policy vacuum with a lack of leadership and management," according to a new report.
There is no department which gives a lead and only one department has a target for cutting CO2 emissions - and this is just for vehicles.
It also accuses the government of having "little consistency in the way business travel is defined and managed across government."
It said different areas including procurement, human resources, finance and sustainability teams are involved in organising travel.
This, said the report, has "resulted in a silo mentality which makes data on travel hard to source and change difficult to implement."
The report A Review of Government Travel: Sustainable travel engaging the public sector was written by JMP Consultants, a company specialising in transport and sustainability issues.
The report found that the government division which had a target for cutting carbon emissions was the Sustainability Operations on the Government Estates Target (SOGE) but this only applied to vehicles, not other forms of travel.
The report states: "There are no other government targets to reduce carbon emissions from travel, or performance measures on social or wider environmental sustainability.
"We understand that the current SOGE targets are under review and future performance indicators may consider other modes of travel and wider sustainability issues."
It said the Department for Transport (DfT) had encouraged other departments to set up voluntary targets for vehicles but the consultants could not find any department which had done this.
In its introduction to the report, JMP said that travel was the only are where carbon emissions were increasing and where they were predicted to go on rising.
It added: "A shift towards sustainable and active travel in government's own operations will support the UK's international and national commitments on reducing carbon emissions."
Last October, the government pledged to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.
The report said it found "no evidence of a government wide travel policy."
The UK government spends £5.4bn a year on travel including cars and business travel.
It added: "There are no minimum requirements and departments design their own travel policy."
One inner department called Buying Solutions had drawn up a travel guidance note but there is no requirement for any departments to adopt it.
The report also found that officials "do not always follow travel policy and book business travel outside agreed travel contracts."
This prevented the collation of management information on travel patterns, spending and carbon emissions.
The report said: "Government needs to improve its management information systems to understand why and how officials travel to deliver its business.
"To improve management information government needs to ensure that:
- travel policy is informative, accessible and up to date
- staff book travel through approved suppliers and there are penalties for non compliance
- internal and supplier management reporting suites capture information on the traveller, the business unit, the reason for travel and the costs of the trip."
The report said that employees were given little information regarding their travel and there was little evidence that departments tried to influence how their staff travelled.
"The DfT leads on national policy, but we have been unable to identify the lead department for promoting and managing travel plans within government's own operations," it said.
The report is about commuting, flexible working and working from home as ways of sustainable travel as well as about business travel.
It called on the Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) to give a lead on these issues.
On air travel, the report said SOGE and most other departments had not targets to cut emissions.
Only three, Defra, HM Revenue and Customs and the Department of International Development had set targets to reduce emissions.
The report found that the use of planes differed significantly. One department made 150 flights from London to Manchester while another made only 36.
Flights to Newcastle by one department numbered 880 while another department made only 30.
On travel by vehicles, government business covered 792.5m kilometres a year but most departments knew very little about their fleets, spending or how the vehicles were being used.
"We found that departments often rely on individuals using their own cars (the grey fleet) when travelling on government business.
"Grey fleet miles are more expensive, harder to manage and pose greater duty of care risks than other modes on vehicle travel.
"In addition, a grey fleet vehicle is more polluting than a Private Use Scheme (PUS) and Acquired Car Scheme (ACS) car or hire car," it said.
It calls on Defra to mandate the collation of MI from all forms of travel including commuting so it can try and understand travel patterns.
On procurement, the report said: "We have not been able to identify the mandatory product standards that government has specified for travel services (which we believe to mean air, rail, hotels, and conferences); and hire, lease and pool vehicles.
"We have also been unable to identify the measures that government has put in place to drive a low carbon resource efficient supply chain."
It concluded: "The travel category is a challenging proposition when seeking to promote travel avoidance.
"Nevertheless, government has an opportunity to engage in discussion with suppliers and develop new models of reward that encourage the adoption of sustainable behaviours."