We are the UK Government’s independent adviser on sustainable development. Through advocacy, advice and
appraisal, we help put sustainable development at the heart of Government policy
Accountability and costs
Our board
The SDC Board is responsible for managing the business of the SDC. The Board includes a Chair, four executive members with a range of expertise relevant to the SDC's work, and two non-executive members whose role it is to ensure executive members are sufficiently supported and constructively challenged.
Our Accounting Officer
The SDC's Chief Executive, Andrew Lee, acts as our Accounting Officer. In this role Andrew is personally responsible, both to Parliament and our sponsor Departments, for safeguarding the SDC's public funds and day to day management.
How we appraise our progress
Each year we publically set out our programme of work for the next twelve months. This sets out the outcomes for our work, and key deliverables.
We appraisal our progress against this plan, and make this information public, in an annual review.
Reporting to Government
The Cabinet Office is formally the sponsoring Department of the SDC in the UK, though in practice, day-to-day sponsorship is delegated to Defra. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will account for the SDC’s UK wide business in Parliament.
The Framework Agreement sets out in detail the specific accountabilities and responsibilities for all four UK Governments.
Our funding
We are funded by the four UK Governments. Our core funding is provided by Defra to cover our Whitehall and UK work programmes. Additional funding is received from the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish Governments.