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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

That is a similar point to the one that was made by the hon. Member for Belfast, North. I intend in broad terms today to get the support of the House for a sustainable development strategy for Northern Ireland and for the measure to place a duty on local authorities to contribute to that. Having inherited this post some seven days ago, I want to consult on how that duty will operate in practice, what the relationship is and what the targets are. I want to examine that in detail so that we can get collective ownership of those targets, for the reasons that the hon. Gentleman mentioned. I hope that it will be of help to the hon. Gentleman when I say that the Northern Ireland Local Government Association has been an active stakeholder and participant in helping to draw up the strategy that the Secretary of State launched on 9 May. The councils’ living more sustainably working group has also been involved in the consultations to get us where we are. However, more guidance is needed. Today, I hope that the House will support the principle of sustainable development generally. The Government take the whole question of the shared future programme and the ““A Shared Future”” document extremely seriously. I hope that the hon. Member for Argyll and Bute (Mr. Reid) knows that the Secretary of State in the past fortnight has relaunched that document. It is our intention, while we hold office in the direct rule Administration, to ensure not only that are we advocates for a shared future in Northern Ireland as a whole but that we look in detail at how to implement ““A Shared Future”” in government in Northern Ireland. With the mini re-shuffle in Northern Ireland, I assumed responsibility for ““A Shared Future”” some eight days ago. I intend as part of the ministerial team to look at how, in what I hope will be short time I hold this post in the Assembly, to drive forward that agenda to meet our objectives. We may disagree on this, but I believe that we cannot legislate for ““A Shared Future”” in that way but that we need to examine how we can put it into practice in due course. I will look at the strategy and take that on board. I am happy to discuss with the hon. Gentleman outside this place his party’s views on that matter, as I am with any others, but the whole ministerial team is committed to ensuring that ““A Shared Future”” operates in practice. The hon. Member for North Down (Lady Hermon) is right that Wales has Executive power vested in the National Assembly. As I have said, the new clause will allow for further public authorities to be designated for the purposes of the duty. I reconfirm that it is open to the Northern Ireland Assembly in due course to make those requests accordingly. I hope that the Assembly has an early opportunity to do that. I hope that hon. Members can support the new clause. I take on board the points that have been made, but hope that hon. Members will support it and await the guidance in due course.