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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

We certainly support new clause 1 and amendment No. 1. Sustainable development is clearly an important aim for public authorities and we support the Government placing a duty on public authorities to achieve sustainable development. I want to raise a similar issue. Are the Government considering placing a duty on public bodies to promote the shared future agenda? It is now over a year since the Government published their framework document, ““A Shared Future””. Although that document was strong on vision and principles, it was light on policy specifics. At that time, the Government made commitments to publish the first in a series of shared future action plans in the autumn of 2005. That is now well overdue. Although the Government have freely used the concept of the shared future in speeches, there seems to be a lack of specifics. Surely that should be a priority for public bodies in Northern Ireland. Perhaps the Minister can explain what the Government’s intentions are on the shared future agenda.