Dear Cabinet Office,

BACKGROUND INFO

An article published in the Observer on the 04 March 2023 suggests minister have received briefings on the government Net Zero strategy. The report states:

"Cabinet ministers have been warned by senior civil servants that they face court action because of their catastrophic failure to develop policies for tackling climate change, according to secret documents obtained by the Observer."

"The leaked briefings from senior mandarins – marked “official sensitive” and dated 20 February this year – make clear the government as a whole is way behind in spelling out how it will reach its net zero targets and comply with legal duties to save the planet."

"The documents say that as a result of evident lack of policy there is an increasing “legal risk” facing the secretary of state for energy security and net zero, Grant Shapps – who is held responsible under law for failing to act."

"At one point, officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) state that their own department’s failure to develop policies for cutting carbon emissions “increases the legal risk on the DESNZ (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero) SoS (Shapps) if the reduced savings cannot be made across the economy, which DESNZ have indicated will not be possible.”

"The papers, circulated by Defra officials to other senior Whitehall figures, will place particular pressure on environment secretary Thérèse Coffey, who was booed recently at a conference by farmers, who are already highly critical of the government’s agenda for agriculture post-Brexit."

"The documents show Coffey’s department is by far the worst offender in failing to develop green policy, lagging a staggering 24% behind its official target, while the transport department has a gap “that is considerably over 5%”.

"The documents show Coffey’s officials pleading with her to adopt an improved climate plan for the agricultural sector within weeks, not only to meet a legal deadline but also in response to stinging rebukes from the government advisers on the climate change committee (CCC)."

"They say: “The CCC has been calling for Defra to publish a decarbonisation plan since 2018 … The CCC has also criticised the ‘glacial progress’ in reducing emissions from agriculture.”

Link to report: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/...

MY REQUEST

1 - Please provide a copy of all briefing papers and advice issued to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak regarding the Net Zero Strategy.

Note - Please use the following date range for your searches: 25 October 2022 to 07 March 2023.

Note – Please only search for relevant information regarding the governments Net Zero strategy.

Yours faithfully,

russell scott

Dear Cabinet Office,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Cabinet Office's handling of my FOI request 'Net Zero Strategy'.

Dear Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's handling of my FOI request 'Net Zero Strategy'.

Please note the following:

1 - Matters relating to how this government handles climate change/net zero related matters of of huge public importance and interest and this outweighs the reasons for disclosure.

2 - Additionally, you have provided no evidence to suggest the release of the document requested would have a "chilling effect". I would point the authority to Professor Robert Hazell and Dr Ben Worthy's research titled "The impact of the FOIA on Central Government in the UK" (Palgrave 2010), which provides detailed analysis of the 'chilling effect myth' it concludes: "The interview evidence gathered in this study points to the conclusion that government decision making and effectiveness has not been significantly affected either positively or negatively". Furthermore the tribunal considered this research in a case between 'Department of health v IC, John Healy MP' and noted: "we note the independent research carried out by the Constitution Unit at UCL has concluded that there is little evidence of FOIA leading to a chilling effect" (para 67).

Yours faithfully,

russell scott

Dear FOI Team Mailbox,

I can confirm this is a request to the Cabinet Office.

Yours sincerely,

russell scott