Sustainability

Sustainability is integral to how we deliver justice responsibly, manages risks and uses public resources efficiently.

During 2025-26, we strengthened our approach by establishing foundations for governance, strategy and delivery, supported by stronger governance and improved performance insight and a more structured approach to climate related risk management.

We have made good progress in several areas during the year, including reductions in direct emissions, practical estate efficiency improvements and strengthened organisational governance. In other areas, reported performance reflects both operational challenges and improvements in the availability and quality of underlying data. Where further improvement is required, we have set out actions to strengthen performance, resilience and reporting maturity.

Sustainability outcomes are delivered through internal capability and delivery partners, particularly the Government Property Agency (GPA), which manages the estate. We retain accountability for sustainability performance and reporting, with delivery partner reliance managed through governance, assurance and performance arrangements.

We contribute to the United Nations sustainable development goals relating to climate action (13), responsible consumption and production (12), and strong institutions (16). Reporting follows UK government frameworks.

Scope and data validation

This report is prepared in accordance with HM Treasury’s Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM), Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and Sustainability Reporting Guidance.

Reporting is limited to CPS-occupied operational buildings where sufficiently reliable data is available. Data is sourced from CPS systems, delivery partners and third-party suppliers.

Where data is not contractually available, estimates have been applied. We recognise that data completeness and comparability remain constrained in some areas, particularly utilities and waste reporting where we rely on data provided through delivery partners and landlords. We continue to work with partners to improve data quality, consistency and assurance over time.

TCFD compliance

Following assessment, we do not currently recognise climate change as a principal risk. This reflects a considered governance judgement that climate-related risks are manageable within existing governance and control frameworks and do not currently pose a material threat to the organisational delivery.

Climate-related risks are recognised as relevant and evolving and are included within the corporate risk register. These risks are managed through established governance processes and are kept under review.

We have prepared climate related disclosures in line with HM Treasury’s TCFD aligned disclosure application guidance with relevant disclosures presented through the governance, strategy, risk management and metrics and targets sections of this report.

Governance

We strengthened sustainability governance during 2025-26 to ensure environmental and climate-related risks and opportunities are appropriately overseen.

Senior oversight is provided through the Executive Committee, with challenge from the CPS Board and independent assurance from the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.

Climate-related risks are managed through the enterprise risk management framework, with:

Executive Committee members acting as risk owners;
Quarterly review cycles aligned to strategic and corporate risk registers;
Escalation through established governance arrangements and
Reporting feeding into the Annual Report and Accounts.

Delivery is coordinated through a cross-functional Sustainability Working Group. We work in partnership with GPA, while retaining accountability for sustainability performance and reporting.

Climate change and sustainability strategy

During 2025-26, we approved our Climate Change and Sustainability Policy and Strategy, which is supported by a phased delivery roadmap aligned to CPS 2030.

The strategy focuses on five impacts:

We reduce our carbon emissions
We reduce our waste
We strengthen sustainability across our supply chain
We enable our people to act sustainably
We strengthen our resilience to climate risks

Delivery is phased and evidence-led, recognising reliance on delivery partners for estate-related activity.

Climate-related risks and opportunities

We’ve undertaken high-level climate risk screening and commenced work with delivery partners to strengthen building level risk assessment and adaptation planning. We recognise climate change as a source of both risk and opportunity.

Physical risks include extreme weather, infrastructure disruption, and impacts on workforce wellbeing and productivity. Transition risks include regulatory change, rising costs and the need for investment in adaptation and decarbonisation.

These risks are captured within the corporate risk register. We have undertaken high-level risk screening and is developing building-level assessments and adaptation planning with delivery partners.

Opportunities include improved efficiency, reduced operating costs, more resilient workplaces and contribution to wider government sustainability objectives.

We have considered risks and opportunities across short (2025-2040), medium (2041-2060) and long-term (2061-2100) horizons. While formal quantitative scenario analysis has not been undertaken, we have considered a range of climate outcomes, including a 2°C scenario. This included consideration of increasing extreme weather events, changing regulations and estates resilience. We are strengthening its approach to climate risk assessment and developing its capability to undertake scenario-based planning to improve its resilience.

Risk management and monitoring

Climate-related risks are managed through our enterprise risk framework. Risks are identified through structured reviews and assessed using standard scoring, considering immediate and longer-term impacts.

Climate risks are integrated within broader organisational risks, including business continuity, infrastructure resilience, estate risks and external disruption. Risks, data limitations and performance issues exceeding tolerance are escalated through governance structures.

Planned improvements include developing more detailed risk assessment approaches, completing an adaptation plan and improving data and scenario analysis capability.

Performance, metrics and targets We report against the Greening Government Commitments framework, aligned to the UK government’s net zero commitment by 2050 under the Climate Change Act 2008.

Changes in performance reflect operational trends and improvements in data availability, particularly from delivery partners. At the time of reporting, the updated framework for 2026-30 has not yet been published and we continue to report against the 2021-25 framework using the 2017-18 baseline.

Greenhouse gas emissions and energy performance

Performance against targets shows mixed progress. Direct greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1) continued to reduce during 2025-26, reflecting lower natural gas consumption and estate efficiency improvements.

Overall reported emissions increased compared with the previous year, driven primarily by higher reported Scope 2
emissions. As noted in the reporting basis, improved data completeness has affected comparability in some areas.

Total energy consumption also increased compared with the previous reporting period, reflecting improved reporting coverage and estate data maturity.

Scope 3 emissions remain limited to non-fleet business travel (excluding international travel) and electricity transmission and distribution losses. Estates intervention remain central to long-term emissions reduction, including monitoring and infrastructure optimisation.

Table 1: GGC Headline target	2025-26	Target achieved?	Commentary
Reduce overall greenhouse emissions by 49% from 2017/18 levels (tCO2e)	37% reduction	No	Overall emissions have increased from 2024-25, driven by increasing scope 2 and business travel emissions. This reflects a combination of improved data accuracy and limitations in underlying data availability
Reduce direct greenhouse emissions by 25% from 2017/18 levels (tCO2e)	54% reduction	Yes	Scope 1 emissions continue to drop from 2024-25 due to a reduction in natural gas consumption.
Reduce the emissions from domestic flights 30% from 2017/18 levels (tCO2e)	37% reduction	Yes	Video conferencing tools are allowing meetings and events to be attended virtually, reducing the need for domestic flights. Similarly, more sustainable modes of travel are being chosen, with rail travel increasing from 2024-25.

Table 1: GGC Headline target

2025-26

Target achieved?

Commentary

Reduce overall greenhouse emissions by 49% from 2017/18 levels (tCO2e)

37% reduction

Overall emissions have increased from 2024-25, driven by increasing scope 2 and business travel emissions.

This reflects a combination of improved data accuracy and limitations in underlying data availability

Reduce direct greenhouse emissions by 25% from 2017/18 levels (tCO2e)

54% reduction

Yes

Scope 1 emissions continue to drop from 2024-25 due to a reduction in natural gas consumption.

Reduce the emissions from domestic flights 30% from 2017/18 levels
(tCO2e)

37% reduction

Yes

Video conferencing tools are allowing meetings and events to be attended virtually, reducing the need for domestic flights.

Similarly, more sustainable modes of travel are being chosen, with rail travel increasing from 2024-25.

Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions are largely influenced by estate performance across GPA-managed buildings. Changes year on year reflect energy demand, estate utilisation and improving reporting accuracy.

Table 2: Greenhouse gas emissions by Scope		2017-18 baseline	2024-25	2025-26¹
Non-financial indicators (tCO2e)	Scope 1 - direct emissions¹	879	429	406
	Scope 2 - indirect emissions (UK electricity)	2,351	954	1,173
	Scope 3 - other indirect emissions²	680	987	893
	Total in-scope emissions	3,910	2,370	2,472

Scope 1 emissions consist of natural gas consumption emissions only. This is due to the CPS not maintaining a fleet and no fugitive emissions being reported.
International travel is not included in Scope 3 emissions, as they are not in scope of CPS’ overall emissions GGC target. Details on Scope 3 international travel emissions can be found in table 4.

Energy consumption is driven by building performance across GPA-managed sites. Changes reflect estate usage and improved data coverage. GPA continues to implement energy reduction measures through its Workplace Services Sustainability Strategy.

Table 3: Energy consumption		2017-18 baseline	2024-25	2025-26
Non-rev indicators (MWh)	Electricity	2,707	4,608	6,627
	Electricity: renewable1	2,149	-	-
	CHP bought electricity	-	-	-
	Natural gas	3,692	2,347	2,217
	Gas oil	715
	Total energy consumption	9,263	6,955	8,844
Financial indicators (£000)	Expenditure on energy	1,088	779	836

Electricity: renewable refers to National Grid electricity procured through a green tariff.

Business travel

Business travel emissions have increased compared with the previous year, driven largely by increases in international travel activity. Domestic air travel has reduced, supported by continued use of virtual collaboration and greater use of rail where operationally appropriate.

Table 4: Greenhouse gas emissions by transport category		2017-18 baseline	2024-25	2025-26
Tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e)	Domestic travel
	Air	19	12	12
	Rail1	-	267	320
	Public Transport and Taxi	-	-	5
	Road - grey and hire fleet1	-	-	4331
	Domestic travel total	19	279	770
	International travel²
	Air - short haul	115	80	98
	Air - long haul	421	271	301
	Air - international²	-	104	152
	Rail - international	-	-	0.2
	International travel total	536	455	551
	Total business travel	555	734	1,321

We began reporting grey and hire fleet travel in 2025-26. Previous figures are unavailable.
International travel is out of scope of our Greening GGC carbon emissions targets.

Table 5: Distance travelled by transport category		2017-18 baseline	2024-25	2025-26
Distance travelled (km)	Domestic travel
	Air - economy	137,251	74,691	85,143
	Air - business	1,005	-	-
	Rail¹	-	7,528,923	9,021,411
	Road - grey and hire fleet²	-	-	2,715,261
	Public Transport and Taxi	-	-	42,282
	Total domestic travel	138,256	7,603,614	11,864,097
	International travel³
	Short haul - economy	1,353,543	692,607	741,912
	Short haul - premium economy	-	-	2,840
	Short haul - business	16,605	29,214	9,945
	Long haul - economy	3,710,145	2,016,042	2,270,406
	Long haul - premium economy	275,982	46,663	11,552
	Long haul - business	384,428	69,488	105,331
	International – economy³	-	1,176,837	1,115,011
	International – Premium Economy3	-	-	14,115
	International – business3	-	35,909	87,852
	International rail	-	-	44,577
	Total international travel	5,740,703	4,066,760	4,403,541
	Total business travel	5,878,959	11,670,374	16,267,638

We’ve only been collating data in respect of rail travel since 2020-21
We began reporting grey and hire fleet travel in 2025-26. Previous figures are unavailable.
The reporting requirement for international flights were introduced in 2021-22 and as such no data is included for years prior.

Table 6: Business travel expenditure	2017-18 baseline	2024-25	2025-26
Expenditure on business travel¹ (£000)	4,697	3,671	5,997

Expenditure relating to witness travel cannot be disaggregated from total witness expenditure and is therefore not included.

Waste, water and resource efficiency

Resource efficiency is delivered through GPA-led waste and water management arrangements. Reported changes reflect improved metering and expanded data coverage, alongside limitations in underlying data.

Performance against waste, landfill, recycling, water and paper targets shows that targets have not been met. This reflects operational factors and data estimation limitations. A significant proportion of waste data is estimated due to incomplete landlord data, affecting landfill and recycling performance.

Table 7: GGC headline target	2025-26	Target achieved?	Commentary
Reduce the overall amount of waste generated by 15% from 2017/18 levels	111% increase	No	A significant proportion of waste data is derived using estimation methodologies where complete landlord or contractor waste data is unavailable. 2025-26 waste data has seen a large increase due to improved facilities management data provision and the inclusion of waste managed through non-facilities management contracts such as confidential waste, which were not available previously.
Reduce the amount of waste going to landfill to 5%	10%	No	A significant proportion of waste data is derived using estimation methodologies where complete landlord or contractor waste data is unavailable. while estimating, waste disposal method defaults to landfill as standard.
Increase the proportion of waste which is recycled to 70%	77%	Yes	This reflects a combination of improved data accuracy and inclusion of non-FM waste (i.e. confidential paper) which is largely recycled.
Reduce water consumption by 8% from 2017/18 levels (m3)	66% increase	No	This reflects a combination of improved data accuracy and limitations in underlying data availability.
Reduce paper usage by 50% from 2017/18 levels. (A4 reams)	22% decrease	No	Paper consumption is demand led and mostly occurs through bulk printing, including the printing of jury bundles.

Table 8: Waste		2017-18 baseline	2024-25	2025-26
Hazardous waste (tonnes)¹		4	-	-
Non-hazardous waste (tonnes)	Reused (Excluding IT)	-	-	4
	Recycled (Excluding IT)	626	251	1,084
	Composted	-	6	19
	Waste incinerated with energy recovery	-	-	187
	Waste incinerated	35	89	-
	Landfill	18	149	149
	Total waste hazardous and non-hazardous	683	495	1,4432
ICT waste (tonnes)	Reused	-	-	0.13
	Recycled	-	-	2.49
	Total ICT waste (excluding reuse)	-	-	2.49
Total waste (tonnes) (IT and non-IT)		683	495	1,445
Percentage landfill		3%	30%	10%
Percentage recycling		92%	52%	77%

Hazardous waste related expenditure is not separately disclosed due to its integration within total waste disposal costs.
This large increase is attributed to the inclusion of waste not managed by facilities management, such as confidential waste, the majority of which is paper.

Water and resources consumption

Reported water consumption increased compared with historic baseline levels. This primarily reflects improved data completeness and reporting visibility across manged properties rather than solely increased operational demand.

Paper consumption remains materially below earlier historic levels, although performance continues to be influenced by operational requirements, including printed court documentation.

Consumer single use plastics reporting remains relatively new and reflects improving maturity of estate related environmental reporting. Comparisons over time should therefore be interpreted in the context of evolving reporting completeness and methodology.

Table 9: Resources (usage)	2017-18 baseline¹	2024-25	2025-26
Water consumption (m3)	16,609	23,067	27,534
Paper consumption (A4 reams)	94,310	71,436	73,706
Consumer single-use plastics (CSUP)²	-	4,629	1,771

Previously reported water and paper figures for 2017-18 included data for all Law Office departments. The corrected 2017-18 baseline includes CPS data only.
From 2024-25, the CPS property partner GPA, began providing data on CSUP usage. Therefore, no CPS CSUP figures are available prior to 2024-25.

Table 10: Resources expenditure	2017-18 baseline	2024-25 (£000)	2025-26 (£000)
Expenditure on water	-	27	34.5
Expenditure on paper	-	317	289
Expenditure on CSUP	-	-	4

Nature recovery and biodiversity

GPA have published an updated Biodiversity and Nature Recovery Annex of the Government Workplace Design Guide. This guidance supports biodiversity and nature recovery across the estate. Working with the GPA, we will continue to ensure that nature recovery and biodiversity is a key consideration of works conducted across the estate.

Sustainable procurement

We have strengthened the integration of sustainability into commercial activity, aligned with relevant legislation and government standards. Sustainability is embedded within governance, procurement design, evaluation and contract management, particularly for higher-impact categories. Social value continues to be considered separately through the government’s Social Value Model as part of procurement evaluation processes, supporting wider public value objectives alongside environmental sustainability.

ICT and digital

We continue to reduce environmental impacts from ICT through supplier reporting, lifecycle management and increased reuse. Most printing relates to jury bundles and pilots on digitising jury bundles have demonstrated potential reductions in paper use and emissions. Digital transformation and modern hosting approaches are expected to support reduced energy consumption compared with legacy infrastructure, alongside wider operational efficiency benefits.

Through enhanced asset lifecycle management, decommissioning of legacy vendor-managed kit, and a greater emphasis on reuse over replacement, we’re aligning with GGC waste reporting requirements and moving towards the long-term ambition of diverting 100 percent of ICT waste from landfill.

Climate change adaptation and resilience

We continue to strengthen resilience to climate-related risks through GPA-led adaptation planning, climate risk assessment and estate resilience activity. This includes development of building-level risk assessment, resilience planning and sustainability improvements delivered through design, retrofit and estate investment activity.

Sustainable construction

Sustainability improvements are delivered through GPA-led design, construction and retrofit activity, including low-carbon standards and energy-efficient systems. At our Bristol office, GPA has committed to sustainability and the circular economy by focusing on the reuse and recycling of materials. This has resulted in the donation of over 4,000m2 carpet tiles to various good causes (including charity shops, educational institutions and churches), saving over 400 tonnes of carbon emissions and diverting 45 tons of waste from landfill.

Our people

Carbon Literacy training successfully piloted: 35 certified colleagues driving change.

Sustainability capability is supported through communications, training and governance structures, including a Sustainability Working Group. Carbon literacy training has been successfully piloted, with 35 colleagues certified and actively applying their learning to reduce carbon impacts at work and in daily life. Sustainability is now being embedded into induction, leadership development and wellbeing programmes to drive organisation-wide behavioural change.

Looking ahead, we’ll continue to strengthen our approach by completing detailed climate risk assessments, improving data quality and embedding sustainability in procurement and investment decisions.

Together these actions will strengthen reporting quality, organisational resilience and our ability to manage climate-related risks over time.