Corporate report

HMRC Sustainability Report 2020 to 2021

Updated 22 February 2022

1. Introduction

HMRC’s purpose is to collect the money that pays for the UK’s public services and give financial support to people. As the UK’s tax, payments and customs authority, our work touches the lives of almost everyone in the country. A strong sustainability ambition is very important to our work.

In fact, the 3 pillars of sustainability – economic, social, and environmental impact – are central to HMRC’s strategic role in collecting taxes and duties, administering customs, tax credits and Child Benefit; how we engage with our customers, communities, and colleagues; and our contribution to financial efficiency across government.

2020 to 2021 has been a year defined by the Covid-19 pandemic, necessitating huge shifts in how we work, how we travel and how we communicate. The effects of the pandemic on our sustainability performance have been varied.

We responded to the challenges the pandemic raised by developing new ways of working for example, without in-person volunteering and fundraising events we developed more online opportunities for our staff to support local communities. Our buildings have remained open so our office energy use remains; however, staff business travel has significantly reduced – most noticeably resulting in a 99% reduction in domestic flights.

As well as reflecting on our achievements in a difficult year, we look ahead to our ambitions for the future, particularly our dedication to supporting young people to learn about tax, and our commitment to HMRC achieving Net Zero carbon emissions by 2040.

This sustainability report expands on the sustainability section in HMRC’s 2020 to 2021 Annual Report and Accounts and complies with HM Treasury guidelines on sustainability reporting.

It focuses on the environmental and social sustainability strands of our work across HMRC. We employ around 62,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff, including the Valuation Office Agency and Revenue and Customs Digital Technology Services Limited.

The report considers our achievements in both environmental and social sustainability, including performance against the Greening Government Commitments.

The report does not cover HMRC’s role in collecting environmental taxes, and the contribution this makes to influencing the environmental behaviours of individuals and businesses nationally.

Data provided in this report covers the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.

2. Environmental sustainability

Key to HMRC’s approach to environmental sustainability are the Greening Government Commitments. We are proud to have met or exceeded the 2016 to 2020 Greening Government Commitments, and details of our performance in 2020 to 2021 are detailed in section 2.1 onwards.

Beyond this, we have set a target to be Net Zero by 2040. We are identifying opportunities to reduce carbon on our estate and are striving to make our buildings as efficient as possible.

Our estates team have developed an app that maps the occupancy of our offices, measuring energy consumption to assist in optimising the way we use space in our regional centres. We also recognise the importance of how we procure our energy and have moved to a 100% green tariff for the electricity that we purchase directly.

We are expanding our electric vehicle charging infrastructure and investing in zero emission vehicles to achieve the Government Fleet Commitment. This year we have added 46 zero emission vehicles and 15 ultra-low emission vehicles to our fleet.

We are also working to uncover the emissions that come from our supply chain and are looking to reduce the carbon footprint of our ICT and digital programmes. Taken together, these measures will support us to achieve our Net Zero ambition and to build on our success in achieving year on year emissions reductions against the Greening Government Commitments for the last decade.

2.1. Our achievements against the Greening Government Commitments

The Greening Government Commitments set targets for central government to make performance improvements in operational consumption and waste, as well as setting standards for transparent reporting on sustainable procurement, biodiversity management and improvement, climate change adaptation, food and catering, and construction.

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected not only our performance against the targets, but also the commitments themselves, which were set to run from 2016 to 2020, but due to the pandemic were extended to financial year 2020 to 2021.

We will start reporting against the newly published targets for 2021 to 2025 in financial year 2021 to 2022.

HMRC has built on previous years’ performance and continued to make strong progress against all the Greening Government Commitments and has met or exceeded the 2021 targets.

HMRC’s Executive-level Performance Committee, our Sustainability Champion, alongside the Defra-appointed GL Industrial Services UK Ltd (DNVGL), provide the governance and quality assurance for our progress against the 2021 targets.

The table below provides a summary of our progress against the Greening Government Commitments.

Supporting data can be found at Section 2.2 and in Annex A. It incorporates the performance of our executive agency, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

These commitments also form part of the government’s contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). More detail on these can be found at Annex C.

Greening Government Commitments summary

	Government target (2009 to 2010 baseline)	2018 to 2019 performance against baseline	2019 to 2020 performance against baseline	2020 to 2021 performance against baseline
Greenhouse gas emissions	54% reduction	61% reduction	69% reduction	74% reduction
Domestic flights	30% reduction	36% reduction	49% reduction	99% reduction
Waste arising	Reduce overall waste generated	53% reduction	51% reduction	73% reduction
Waste to landfill	Less than 10%	1% to landfill	1% to landfill	1% to landfill
Waste to recycling	Increase proportion recycled (57% in 2009 to 2010)	78% recycled	80% recycled	85% recycled
Water consumption	Continue 2014 to 2015 reductions	44% reduction	46% reduction	71% reduction
Water efficiency	reduce to 7 cubic metres per FTE	7.7 cubic metres per FTE	6.72 cubic metres per FTE	3.69 cubic metres per FTE
Paper purchased	50% reduction	76% reduction	83% reduction	97% reduction

Note: The percentage reduction for waste arising and the percentage of waste recycled for 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 are revised figures from those previously reported.

2.2. Environmental targets

The following sections set out in more detail the data that inform the Greening Government Commitments summary table above.

2.2.1. Greenhouse gas emissions

The target for greenhouse gas emissions combines emissions from our buildings and our business travel. The target is a reduction of 54% against the 2009 to 2010 baseline.

We have exceeded this target. Our emissions have reduced by 74% since the baseline, a further decrease of 5 percentage points over 2019-20. The table below shows our greenhouse gas emissions in thousands of tonnes of CO2e.

A breakdown of the data that inform the total greenhouse gas emissions can be found at Annex A.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Financial year	CO2e (thousands of tonnes)
Target	87.79
2020-21	50
2019-20	60
2018-19	75
2017-18	88
2016-17	99
2015-16	112
2014-15	123
2013-14	128
2012-13	140
2011-12	139
2010-11	165
Baseline	191

2.2.2. Domestic flights

The target for domestic flights is a 30% reduction against the 2009 to 2010 baseline, which is equivalent to 38,319 flights.

Given Covid-19 travel restrictions, our domestic flights reduction in 2020 to 2021 has exceeded this target and is a significant reduction when compared with the previous year. In 2020 to 2021 HMRC staff took 782 domestic flights, which is a reduction of 99% against the baseline, and represents 53,959 fewer flights than were taken in 2009 to 2010.

Notwithstanding the impact of Covid-19 restrictions, a downwards trend had been evident for several years, as can be seen in the table below.

HMRC works across the whole of the UK, and 49% of domestic flights taken were to or from Northern Ireland.

Further detail of domestic flights and wider business travel are available in Annex A and additional detail on domestic travel mileage is available at Annex B.

Domestic flights

Financial year	Domestic flights
Target	38,319
2020-21	782
2019-20	27,665
2018-19	35,162
2017-18	36,636
2016-17	39,110
2015-16	36,753
2014-15	38,813
2013-14	37,308
2012-13	27,413
2011-12	32,642
Baseline	54,741

2.2.3. Waste arising

The commitment for waste arising is to reduce overall waste generated. The 2009 to 2010 baseline figure was 18,193 tonnes of waste.

We have met the target to reduce the overall waste arising, with the 2020 to 2021 figures representing a 73% reduction against the baseline figure. Waste arising was also 44% lower in 2020 to 2021 than in 2019 to 2020.

This has again been impacted by the reduced number of staff on site due to the pandemic. However, reductions have also been achieved through smarter waste management, behaviour change, reductions in paper use and IT efficiencies.

Further detail of our waste arising, landfill and recycling data is available at Annex A.

Waste arising

Financial year	Waste arising (thousands of tonnes)
2020-21	4.9
2019-20	8.9
2018-19	8.5
2017-18	9.4
2016-17	7.3
2015-16	7.0
2014-15	8.2
2013-14	9.0
2012-13	10.0
2011-12	11.2
2010-11	12.8
Baseline	18.2

Note: The total for waste arising for 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 are revised figures from those previously reported.

2.2.4. Waste to landfill

The target is that less than 10% of waste should go to landfill. We have achieved the target with just 1% of waste sent to landfill in 2020 to 2021. This is in line with our waste to landfill figure of 1% over the 2 previous reporting years.

Although just 1% (26 tonnes) of waste has gone to landfill, we are working hard to reduce this to zero. As the operator of the Landfill Tax, we are acutely aware of the need to reduce our reliance on landfill as a waste solution, and we continue to work with our suppliers to minimise this waste stream.

Waste to landfill

Financial year	Waste to landfill
2020-21	1 %
2019-20	1 %
2018-19	1 %
2017-18	2 %
2016-17	2 %
2015-16	3 %
2014-15	7 %

2.2.5. Waste to recycling

The target for recycling is to increase the proportion of waste recycled from the 57% baseline figure in 2009 to 2010.

We have exceeded the target. 85% of waste was recycled in 2020 to 2021, including 48 tonnes of IT waste.

Our ambitious regional centres programme began in 2015. In 2020 to 2021, 4 new regional centres opened – in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Leeds, and Stratford – providing modern, collaborative workspaces for our staff. Waste to recycling figures are expected to fluctuate as confidential paper and other material is disposed of as employees move to regional centres.

Waste recycled

Financial year	Waste recycled
2020-21	85 %
2019-20	80 %
2018-19	78 %
2017-18	81 %
2016-17	71.4 %
2015-16	64 %
2014-15	65.9 %
2013-14	61.1 %
2012-13	62.4 %

Note: The percentage of waste recycled for 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 are revised figures from those previously reported.

2.2.6. Water consumption

The target is for water consumption to decrease from 2014 to 2015 levels, when consumption was 689,000 cubic metres.

We have exceeded the target. In 2020 to 2021 our water consumption was 283,000 cubic metres – a 71% reduction against the 2009 to 2010 baseline, and down 46% compared to 2019 to 2020.

A large part of this success has been due to having far fewer colleagues in offices this year. However, a downward trend in our water consumption was already evident as shown in the table below. This has been achieved through a reduction in the size of the estate, the prompt repair of water leaks and through water efficiency measures such as the replacement of old plant with more efficient equipment.

Further detail of our water consumption and water efficiency data is available at Annex A.

Water consumption

Financial year	Water consumption (m3 thousands)
2020-21	283
2019-20	524
2018-19	540
2017-18	566
2016-17	597
2015-16	621
2014-15	689
2013-14	725
2012-13	733
2011-12	752
Baseline	962

2.2.7. Water efficiency

The target for water efficiency is to reduce usage to 7 cubic metres per FTE.

We have exceeded the target. In 2020 to 2021, water use per FTE had dropped to 3.69m3/FTE. This is 71% less water than we used in 2009 to 2010, and the reduction represents a saving of more than 678 million litres of water.

Water efficiency

Financial year	Water efficiency (m3 per FTE)
2020-21	3.7
2019-20	6.7
2018-19	7.7
2017-18	7.1
2016-17	7.5
2015-16	7.1
2014-15	7.8
2013-14	7.7
2012-13	11.0
2011-12	10.2
Baseline	13.2

2.2.8. Paper purchased

The target for paper is to reduce the amount of paper purchased by 50% against the 2009 to 2010 baseline of 853,000 A4 reams equivalent.

We have exceeded the target. In 2020 to 2021, we purchased 23,000 A4 reams equivalent. This is a 97% reduction against the baseline.

The fall in paper consumption is driven by our digital agenda, which includes the launch and promotion of user-friendly digital services for staff and customers. Millions of customers are now using HMRC’s Personal Tax Accounts and Business Tax Accounts to handle their tax affairs quickly and easily online, leading to a reduction in paper-based communication.

Paper purchased

Financial year	Paper purchased (thousands of A4 reams equivalent)
2020-21	23
2019-20	142
2018-19	205
2017-18	295
2016-17	378
2015-16	446
2014-15	508
2013-14	581
2012-13	594
2011-12	649
2010-11	727
Baseline	853

2.2.9. Demonstrating reductions per FTE

We have compared our footprints per FTE in 2020 to 2021 against the footprints per FTE in 2009 to 2010 for greenhouse gas emissions, waste, water, flights, and paper. There were positive improvements across all the Greening Government Commitment target areas.

Comparison of footprints per FTE 2009 to 2010, and 2020 to 2021

Greening Government Commitment	2009 to 2010 footprints per FTE	2020 to 2021 footprint per FTE
Greenhouse gas emissions (tonnes of CO2e)	2.61	0.66
Waste (tonnes)	0.26	0.06
Water (m3)	13.17	3.69
Domestic flights	0.70	0.01
Paper (reams of A4)	10.97	0.37

2.3. Additional environmental sustainability

The sections below explain HMRC’s approach to sustainable procurement, climate change adaptation, biodiversity, sustainable construction, and rural proofing.

2.3.1. Sustainable procurement

The Government Buying Standards (GBS) are embedded in our contracts and we encourage our suppliers to go beyond the minimum requirements to meet GBS best practice. The facilities management and catering contracts for our regional centres have achieved GBS best practice. This is covered in our Estates Sustainability Plan.

Our catering providers comply with the GBS for food, including for the procurement of sustainable palm oil, palm kernel oil and derivatives. We also encourage our catering providers to procure food that meets British or equivalent production standards and to reduce the environmental impact of their services. This includes the use of organic, sustainable and fairly-traded food options, local sourcing of produce, goods and services and increased use of sustainable packaging including compostable alternatives. The catering providers at many of our sites make sure that food waste is recycled through anaerobic digestion.

All ICT purchased meets or exceeds the relevant GBS. In addition, Sustainability Impact Assessments are carried out to make sure that all devices meet sustainability requirements around repairability and power saving settings.

Since 2009, we have used a sustainability assessment tool to measure the environmental, social and economic impact of our supply chain. Suppliers are scored annually against a number of themes, including anti-corruption, diversity, social value, environmental management, Greening Government Commitments, health and safety, carbon and waste reduction, and labour standards. Response rates have dropped during the pandemic, and we will be working to support more suppliers to complete the assessment.

2.3.2. Responding and adapting to climate change

We are improving the readiness of our estate to adapt and respond to climate change. We are using digital information to monitor the internal and external environment of our buildings to ensure they operate most effectively. For example, equipment will access weather forecast data to regulate temperature controls accordingly.

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method) provides third party certification of the assessment of an asset’s environmental, social and economic sustainability performance. Throughout the regional centre development programme, we have sought BREEAM credits for flood risk assessment. We are leading on incorporating building information from construction and fit-out to support strategic decisions, manage our assets more effectively and reduce the operational impact of our buildings.

We will have a climate change adaptation plan in place by 2025.

2.3.3. Biodiversity and the natural environment

We incorporate green spaces such as green roofs, terraces for planting and landscaped water features within our new regional centres. We are also maintaining and improving biodiversity across our legacy estate, through appropriate landscaping and inclusion of areas such as wildflower meadows. These features will be beneficial to wildlife and pollinators as well as improving air quality and providing health and wellbeing benefits.

2.3.4. Sustainable construction

Our new regional centres will all achieve a BREEAM excellent rating, with ‘refurbished’ buildings achieving a BREEAM very good rating. All of these will have an Energy Performance Certificate rating in the top quartile, in line with government requirements. We are working with our construction partners and developers to maximise local resourcing of materials and labour for each regional centre.

2.3.5. Rural proofing

Policy professionals have guidance on a range of impacting considerations including rural proofing, when developing policy.

2.4. Looking ahead: environmental sustainability opportunities

2.4.1. Net Zero

HMRC has committed to becoming Net Zero by 2040, 10 years ahead of the government’s 2050 legislative target. This stretching ambition presents an exciting opportunity to ensure that the continued modernisation of our services is approached in a sustainable way that aligns with our carbon reduction ambition.

There are gaps in our understanding of our full emissions – throughout our supply chain for example, and in areas such as employee commuting. We will be working to better understand the full picture of our emissions and further developing the roadmaps that we need to achieve the target.

The 2040 target allows us to focus the department on a shared goal that will embed sustainability as everyone’s responsibility, requiring active leadership, changes to processes and culture, as well as opportunities to build skills across the organisation.

In 2021 to 2022, we will be trialling Smart Building technology to optimise our buildings both in terms of being healthier workplaces through improved thermal comfort and air quality, and to better manage energy demand.

2.4.2. IT and data

Our move to Cloud will result in more efficient use of sustainable energy, using providers who are committed to Net Zero and to renewable power.

Data will continue to be a driving force in our work, and we will improve our utilisation of data to inform our approach across all areas of sustainability.

This work is helping us to make strategic decisions with confidence and we are continuously growing our data sources and capability to ensure we are getting the most from the information we have. We continue to look for ways to make our data more accessible and interactive to enable colleagues to engage with it more effectively.

2.4.3. Domestic flights

We have seen a drastic reduction in flights due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In previous years, HMRC has had the highest number of domestic flights in government. The coming year offers us the opportunity to combine the close monitoring of data with the promotion of the travel alternatives embraced during the pandemic, to encourage staff to continue to deliver business and customer needs effectively, whilst minimising non-essential travel.

2.4.4. Government fleet commitment

We are working towards the target of 25% of government fleet to be ultra-low emission by December 2022. We have already moved some of our drivers to electric vehicles. We will continue to invest in charging infrastructure at our new regional centres and to identify suitable vehicles for our fleet.

3. Social sustainability

Our social sustainability work provides opportunities for our colleagues to engage with and support future and current customers and the communities in which they live.

By enabling this work to take place, we support HMRC as a Great Place to Work. By taking part, colleagues build their skills, learn more about customers’ needs, take pride in working for HMRC and support their wellbeing.

Customers can understand more about our work, benefit directly from charitable giving and the time spent volunteering, and build trust and confidence in our colleagues.

This work fits into 3 areas:

• tax education for young people
• volunteering
• charitable fundraising and giving

3.1. Tax education for young people

Our award-winning Tax Facts tax education programme for young people aged between 7 and 17 continues to facilitate early engagement with, and understanding from, our current and future customers. The Tax Facts videos received an average of 6,733 monthly views in the reporting period, bringing the total to more than 239,000 total online views since the programme launched in 2015. This is an increase from the previous financial year in which the average monthly views stood at 4,000.

Covid-19 restrictions in schools meant that face-to-face delivery through our volunteers was paused so our focus was on promotion of the animations and teaching packs to provide ready-made lessons for online learning. The packs have been downloaded over 1,490 times since 2015 and assuming that each pack has been delivered twice to a class of 30 students, we estimate 89,400 students have learnt about tax through the Tax Facts programme.

We harnessed the requirement to learn from home to develop an adapted teaching pack which young people and parents could use independently. This pack was launched in November 2020 and has been downloaded 158 times.

Following up on feedback to make the resources more accessible, we developed British Sign Language versions of the Tax Facts videos. These were launched in March 2021 and received more than 1,800 views in the first month.

All the Tax Facts materials are on YouTube and the Times Educational Supplement website, and are free to all users.

3.2. Volunteering

Between 2020 and 2021 we funded 1,338 days of employee time for community activity by encouraging our employees to volunteer with schools, charities and community organisations, and to participate in public duties, such as school governors and magistrates.

We strengthened our partnerships with several organisations, developing remote volunteering opportunities to enable colleagues to continue volunteering and provide the vital support needed in local communities, whilst keeping them safe. We continued to focus our activity across 3 key themes: tax education for young people, digital inclusion and youth employability; whilst developing new partnerships to help deliver our priorities.

To support with the national Covid-19 volunteering effort, we temporarily relaxed our volunteering policy to enable staff to provide support to vulnerable groups. Volunteers undertook activities such as collecting/delivering food, medication and prescriptions; transporting patients; creating personal protective equipment (PPE) and becoming a telephone companion.

Over the period, 10 HMRC staff members took part in a 20-day developmental team programme with the Prince’s Trust. This supported a diverse group of unemployed young people between the ages of 16 and 25 to build skills and confidence by taking part in projects supporting the local community.

We delivered internal campaigns for Volunteers’ Week, National Inclusion Week and International Volunteers’ Day to promote volunteering opportunities across the organisation, share experiences and celebrate the positive work delivered through our volunteering partners including Action Tutoring, Education and Employers, Business in the Community, Career Ready and the Prince’s Trust.

3.3. Charitable fundraising and giving

In 2020 to 2021 HMRC staff raised and donated more than £900,000 for good causes. This included more than half a million pounds to around 900 charities through HMRC’s Payroll Giving scheme and more than £26,000 raised by colleagues for their chosen charities, despite the limitations brought about by Covid-19 restrictions.

We ran successful Payroll Giving campaigns with our partner Charities Trust which matched new and increased donations up to £10 for a promotional period.

Colleagues also raised money for our 3 official charities – The Charity for Civil Servants, The Lifeboat Fund and BBC Children in Need. The Children in Need appeal raised more than £16,000 in November 2020, while staff contributed more than £360,000 directly to The Charity for Civil Servants. 

3.4. Looking ahead: opportunities

We will build closer alignment to the department’s wider objectives and strengthen the way we communicate our work externally, including input into employer indexes and CSR benchmarks. This will enable us to communicate a clear responsible business story, underpinned by the outcomes and impacts achieved through our social sustainability work.

3.4.1. Tax Facts

There remains an appetite among young people for learning about tax. We contributed questions to the 2020 Young Persons’ Money Index which found that 64% of the young people that took part wanted to learn more about tax, the fourth highest area of interest after products, budgeting and debt.

We will be looking to further embed Tax Facts into HMRC’s communications strategy to support our future ambitions. By working to keep the resources current, we can support future customers to understand tax, and by enabling colleagues to get more involved with the programme, we can make Tax Facts the flagship volunteering opportunity for our people.

Tax Facts is delivered in schools, and classrooms, curriculums and ways of teaching have changed, meaning Tax Facts needs to be more flexible to suit that changing landscape. We will work to increasingly deliver digitally to maximise reach.

3.4.2. Volunteering

We will continue to engage the workforce to access volunteering opportunities, particularly colleagues from under-represented backgrounds, by building stronger partnerships with staff networks and developing targeted communications.

Additionally, we will develop stronger relationships with regional sponsors to help us raise awareness and build support for the uptake of volunteering activity across the regions.

3.4.3. Fundraising and Payroll Giving

The Covid-19 outbreak heavily impacted on in-person workplace fundraising. However, colleagues have found new ways to fundraise online, and we will continue to use the opportunities offered through different channels for fundraising activity.

4. Further information

If you have any queries about this report or would like a Welsh language version, please email hmrcsustainabilitygroupmailbox@hmrc.gov.uk.

Os oes gennych unrhyw ymholiadau am yr adroddiad hwn neu os hoffech gael fersiwn Gymraeg, anfonwch e-bost at hmrcsustainabilitygroupmailbox@hmrc.gov.uk.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email different.format@hmrc.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Annex A: Sustainability data tables

Greenhouse gas emissions

Table A1. Greenhouse gas emissions: non-financial indicators

Figures stated as tCO2e (thousands).

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Total gross emissions	76.57	62.12	50.65
Total net emissions	72.36	58.97	29.23
Gross emissions Scope 1 and 2	64.12	51.97	50.04
Gross emissions Scope 3 (business travel)	12.45	10.16	0.61

Table A2. Greenhouse gas emissions: energy consumption

Figures stated as kWh (thousands).

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Electricity: non-renewable	99,877	83,190	3,991
Electricity: renewable	13,703	11,369	84,586
Gas	112,230	102,281	123,598
Oil	15,582	12,138	9,222
Whitehall District Heating	3,383	3,259	3,003
Enviroenergy District Heating	4,402	4,418	3,973
Stratford District Heating	N/A	N/A	4,132
Sheffield District Heating	456	501	538

Table A3. Greenhouse gas emissions: travel breakdown

Figures stated as tCO2e (thousands).

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Road	5.9	5.1	0.88
Rail (domestic and overseas)	5.3	3.9	0.07
Air (domestic and overseas)	4.2	3.6	0.22

Table A4. Greenhouse gas emissions: financial indicators

Figures stated as thousands of pounds.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Expenditure on energy	22,631	21,594	22,061
Carbon Reduction Commitment, administration costs, Energy Efficiency Scheme	1.3	N/A	N/A
Expenditure on official business travel	42,895	36,502	1,735

Waste

Table A5. Waste: non-financial indicators

Figures stated as thousands of tonnes.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Total waste	8.47	8.87	4.93
Landfill	0.10	0.06	0.03
Reused/recycled	6.63	7.03	4.19
Incinerated/energy from waste	1.73	1.71	0.72

Table A6. Waste: financial indicators

Figures stated as thousands of pounds.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Total waste	483	499	279
Landfill	15	9	4
Reused/recycled	371	394	235
Incinerated/energy from waste	97	96	40

Note: The tonnage and financial indicators for total waste arising and the tonnage and financial indicators of waste recycled for 2019 to 2020 are revised figures from those previously reported.

Water

Table A7. Water: non-financial indicators - water consumption

Figures stated as m3 (thousands).

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Water consumption – supplied	540	524	283

Table A8. Water: non-financial indicators - water consumption per FTE

Figures stated as m3/FTE.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Water consumption – supplied	7.7	6.7	3.69

Table A9. Water: financial indicators

Figures stated as thousands of pounds.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Water consumption – supplied	2,615	2,575	1,517

Paper

Table A10. Paper: non-financial indicators

Figures stated as A4 reams equivalent thousands.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Copier paper purchased	205	142	23

Table A11. Paper: financial indicators

Figures stated as thousands of pounds.

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Copier paper purchased	485	382	67

Domestic flights

Table A12. Domestic flights: non-financial indicators

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Total number of domestic flights	35.162	27.665	782
Total number of audio conferences	589,399	1,371,545	5,663,712

Data for earlier years can be found in archived versions of our sustainability reports.

Annex B: Domestic travel (mileage)

We set annual targets for travel emissions for each of our business areas. Our executive committee and business leads monitor progress monthly through interactive management reports, which enable them to pinpoint areas of environmental risk. For example, we report on most frequent travellers for each mode of transport (rail, air and road) and most frequent routes travelled.

Actual domestic rail, road and air miles have decreased since the last reporting period by 98%, 83% and 97% respectively. Domestic air mileage has reduced by nearly 7 million miles in 2020 to 2021 against 2019 to 2020 due to the lockdown restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The table below shows the mileage of each travel type, and the percentage of total miles.

Table B1. Mileage by travel type

Method of travel	Miles	Percentage of total miles
Rail	1,091,383	23%
Road	3,329,341	72%
Air	225,403	5%

As part of our commitment to transparency, we publish the business travel details for our senior employees in the Senior officials’ travel report on gov.uk.

Annex C: Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the blueprint to achieving a more sustainable future. Whilst HMRC does not lead on the UK’s commitments to the SDGs, we contribute to them. Our contribution can be linked back to our strategic objectives, which are:

• SO1: collect the right tax and pay out the right financial support
• SO2: make it easy to get tax right and hard to bend or break the rules
• SO3: maintain taxpayers’ consent through fair treatment and protect society from harm
• SO4: make HMRC a great place to work
• SO5: support wider government economic aims through a resilient, agile tax administration system

Table C1. HMRC contribution to Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)	SDG key indicators	Strategic Objective
Goal 1: end poverty in all its forms everywhere	By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions. Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable	1,2,3,5
Goal 8: promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all	Sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 per cent gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries	1,2,3,5
Goal 13: take urgent action to combat climate change and its impact	Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning	3
Goal 17: strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development	Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development	3
Goal 4: ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all	By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship	4
Goal 5: achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls	Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life	4
Goal 10: reduce inequality within and among countries	Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality	4