To ask the Minister for the Economy for his assessment of the energy efficiency of existing public sector buildings and what steps he is considering to retrofit energy efficiency measures.

Improving the energy efficiency of public sector buildings is an important part of our overall approach to energy efficiency. My Department sponsors an Energy Management Unit in the Strategic Investment Board to manage the delivery of the Energy Management Strategy & Action Plan to 2030.

This sets out a pathway for central government to establish effective energy management processes that unlock value and includes an objective of lowering net energy consumption by 30% by 2030 from a 2016/17 baseline year.

Delivering on this strategy and action plan is a collective responsibility across central government and the role of the unit is to facilitate Departments, Arms-Length Bodies and Non-departmental Public Bodies to deliver on potential energy-savings opportunities.

This year my Department has secured capital funding as part of the Economic Recovery Action Plan and proceeded to pilot a funding model for energy efficiency in central government. The initial focus of this funding is to develop an understanding of the readiness and capacity of central government to deliver energy related projects and to scope out any potential procurement challenges that may exist.

Since its launch in May 2019 the strategy commits the Energy Management Unit co-sponsored by my department to report progress against the aforementioned baseline annually, the annuals reports are publically available at www.sibni.org.