A senior backbench MP has said he is “disturbed” that the Cabinet’s Climate Action Strategy committee has only met once since it was set up nine months ago.
Alok Sharma, the president of the COP26 climate change summit, which is due to be held in Glasgow during November, revealed at a specially convened joint meeting of Parliament’s select committees that the cabinet group’s only meeting took place last autumn.
In June 2020, Boris Johnson announced that the work of the Cabinet’s Climate Change Committee was being split up into two groups, one focusing on strategy and the other on implementation, mirroring arrangements set up to handle the potential no-deal Brexit in 2019.
Sir Bernard Jenkin MP, who is chair of the House of Commons Liaison Committee, said he was “disturbed” that the committee has not met more frequently.
The backbench Tory MP told Sharma that he must have the kind of constant access to Boris Johnson enjoyed by lead Brexit minister Lord Frost.
“You need the same kind of instant access to the prime minister,” he said, adding that he would expect the strategy committee should be meeting “weekly”.
But Sharma said the strategy committee will be holding another meeting in the “coming weeks” and that plenty of opportunities exist to input views across government.
“I have pretty regular access to the prime minister and could have more if wanted: the idea that we are sitting on our hands is not happening.”
He added the implementation committee has met “several times” at “key moments”, which he has supplemented with bilateral discussions with ministers.
Sharma also rejected the suggestion that the Treasury is not fully behind COP26.
He said: “I have a good relationship with the Chancellor, who is very supportive of this agenda and those behind him,” he said, adding that the Treasury has a “dedicated” team working on COP.
Sharma also told the committees that the government is “very keen” to ensure that the COP takes place in person rather than online.
“We are planning for a physical event, which is what the parties want, obviously making sure we have contingencies in place because none of us can predict precisely where we will be in six months.”
Peter Hill, chief executive officer of the Cabinet Office’s COP26 Unit, said that it has around 200 staff, one third of whom are working on operational and delivery matters and the other two thirds on policy and negotiation.