Greener NHS Transport data collection

Frequency: annual

In October 2020, NHS England launched the Delivering a Net Zero NHS report, which outlines how the NHS will achieve its commitment to become Net Zero. High quality data and reporting were highlighted within the report as key components for understanding and monitoring against this commitment. In 2021, the Greener NHS Fleet pilot data collection was conducted nationally and was refined in 2022, and it has continued as an annual collection. This forms the basis of our current understanding of national fleet emissions and is supporting development of national interventions.

The Greener NHS Transport Data Collection has been created to enable reporting on fleet carbon emissions and to understand the composition of the NHS fleet to support planning for the necessary transition to zero emissions vehicles. The data collection supports better modelling of the NHS Carbon footprint, better targeting of funds for capital projects, supports financial analysis of planning for Greener NHS net zero vehicle targets, acts as an evidence base to support funding commitments and enables benchmarking between providers. It also provides an overview of the composition of the overall NHS fleet, which supports the delivery of action set out in other statutory guidance, including Green Plan Guidance and Net Zero Travel and Transport Strategy.

This data collection is completed by all NHS provider Trusts.

Data is collected annually after the end of each financial year. 

Registered users will have access to the exact submission dates in the Data Collections Framework.

Existing NHS England statutory duties to collect will be used:

Article 6(1)(e) – ‘…exercise of official authority…’ for statutory duties:

13D. Duty as to effectiveness, efficiency etc.

The collection directly enables more effective and efficient fleet and transport management by enabling trusts to benchmark productivity and utilisation against peers and identify opportunities for improvement.

It also supports economical use of resources by informing targeted national investment decisions and by scheduling and designing the collection to reduce reporting burden and duplication across the system.

13NC. Duties as to climate change

The data collection is a primary input to NHS carbon footprint modelling and the Greener NHS measurement framework, enabling NHS England to measure and evidence progress towards net zero travel and transport objectives and related statutory guidance. It helps NHS England have regard to climate duties in practice by providing the evidence base to plan and prioritise decarbonisation interventions.

In order for NHS England to contribute towards compliance with section 1 of the Climate Change Act 2008 (UK net zero emissions target) it must be able to (a) measure the NHS-related carbon account and (b) “ensure” that the NHS-related carbon account contributes towards compliance of at least 100% reduction on 1990 baseline.