HL Deb 04 February 1998 vol 585 c119WA
Lord Acton

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What plans they have to consult on a new United Kingdom sustainable development strategy. [HL482]

Baroness Hayman

We have today launched consultation on a new UK sustainable development strategy in a document titledOpportunities for Change. The consultation will run to the end of May 1998. Copies of the document, and of an accompanying leaflet prepared for the general public, have been placed in the Library.

Sustainable development is about ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. The consultation is designed to stimulate a national debate on priorities for the forthcoming strategy, which will set objectives for sustainable development and targets and timescales for achieving them. The consultation is about finding common ground and building consensus.

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions will be launching a series of regional consultative events in Scarborough on 6 February. Consultation in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be promoted by their respective Secretaries of State.