Proposals for a Sustainable Development Bill

We committed in Programme for Government to:

• Legislate to make sustainable development the central organising principle of the Welsh Government and public bodies in Wales; and
• Create an independent sustainable development body for Wales.

This consultation will inform the development of the Sustainable Development Bill White Paper. We plan to launch that document which will include more detailed proposals in autumn 2012.

In this consultation we want your views on:

• our approach to a sustainable development duty that applies to organisations delivering public services;
• our approach to the role and functions of a new independent sustainable development body;
• the barriers to taking more long-term joined-up decisions and how to remove them;
• evidence on promoting sustainable development;
• reviewing existing legal duties and simplifying them in the proposed Sustainable Development Bill;
• the advantages and disadvantages of defining “sustainable development” in law.