Commentary on Sections Miscellaneous Section 86: Report on the civil estate
468.This section places a duty on the Treasury to make an annual report to Parliament on the progress made towards improving the efficiency and contribution to sustainability of buildings which form part of the Government’s civil estate.
469.Subsection (1) sets out the basic duty to make a report to Parliament in respect of each year, beginning with 2008. Subsection (2) provides that the report must contain two specific elements: it must set out the progress made towards reducing the size of the civil estate and progress made towards ensuring that buildings that become part of the civil estate fall within the top quartile of energy performance.
470.Subsection (3) places a duty on the Treasury to include in the report a statement explaining why, if a building which has become part of the civil estate does not fall within the top quartile of energy performance, the building has nevertheless become part of the estate.
471.Subsection (4) provides that each report must be laid before Parliament by 1st June in the year after the year it relates to. So the report in respect of 2008 must be laid before Parliament by 1st June 2009.
472.Subsection (5) provides that the word “building” in this section only applies to buildings which do not use energy for heating or cooling any part of their interior. Subsection (6) provides that a building only forms part of the “civil estate” for the purposes of this section if it is used for central government administration (as opposed to operational activities) and, on the date the Act receives Royal Assent, it is of a description of buildings for which the Treasury has responsibilities in relation to efficiency and sustainability.
473.Subsections (7) and (8) give the Treasury the power to provide, by affirmative resolution order, that buildings of a specified description are or are not to be considered to form part of the civil estate for the purposes of this section.