Section 62: Directions by Secretary of State to prepare reports
268.This section allows the Secretary of State to require reporting authorities, individually or jointly with other reporting authorities, to prepare reports on adaptation.
269.Subsection (1) provides that the Secretary of State may require a reporting authority to prepare a report covering any or all of the following matters:
an assessment of the current and predicted impact of climate change on the authority’s functions;
a statement setting out the authority’s proposals and policies for adapting to climate change, and its timescales for introducing the proposals and policies;
an assessment of the progress the authority has made towards implementing any proposals and policies contained in an earlier report.
270.Subsection (2) allows the Secretary of State to require two or more authorities to prepare a joint report. Subsection (3) allows the Secretary of State to give directions to the reporting authority about the timing of the report and the matters it should cover, and allows the Secretary of State to limit the report’s coverage to a particular geographical area.
271.Subsection (4) has the effect that the Secretary of State cannot require an authority to produce a report dealing with how it will adapt to the impact of climate change in relation to its “devolved functions” (defined in section 70 – see the notes on that section for more information). But the Secretary of State can require the report to cover all of the authority’s other, non-devolved, functions.
