Climate & Environment

UK Audit Office Highlights Climate‑Related Risks to Public Services

By list.metadata.agency

The UK’s National Audit Office (NAO) has reported that extreme weather is already affecting public finances, with railways, prisons and healthcare experiencing measurable damage. The NAO said the full extent of the damage is hard to determine because many government departments have not yet provided the disclosures required for a comprehensive assessment. "Parliament needs clear information on the resilience of infrastructure, service provision and finances to climate change, and on how these risks are being managed," said Gareth Davies, head of the NAO. "We expect this reporting to become more useful over time." This is the first year that larger UK government departments are required to publish detailed information about the risks they face from global warming. In many cases, the NAO found that efforts to understand such exposures are still in early stages. Disclosures are needed to help lawmakers monitor how prepared the UK’s public services are. Britons are experiencing increasingly severe heat waves and flash floods. Intense heat has already damaged roads and railways and made schools and hospitals dangerously hot this summer, while floods are becoming more frequent and destructive to key infrastructure such as railways. Flooding was the most common hazard identified in the disclosures monitored by the NAO. Approximately 89% of prisons face a high risk of flooding, and NHS sites recorded 391 flooding incidents in 2024‑25. The NAO report also noted that overheating can lead to increased violence in prisons. "Government still has much to do, particularly in setting meaningful targets," said Geoffrey Clifton‑Brown, chair of the UK Parliament’s Committee of Public Accounts. "Better reporting is encouraging, but Parliament and the public need more than a list of risks: they need to know how prepared government is to manage them."