I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the Public Consultations Portal, which was included in the Programme for a Partnership Government, will be launched shortly.
The Portal will provide a single mechanism by which people can access information on consultations at local, regional and national levels.
The portal has been developed by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer in consultation with the Open Government Unit in my department. It will allow people who access it to search for consultations by policy area and organisation, such as a Government Department, Local Authority or Public Body. Users will be able to receive email notifications of new consultations by policy area or organisation and share consultations on social media or by email.
A lot of work has been put into making sure the user interface is simple and easy to use and that the portal will be kept up to date with all live consultations across central and local government.
We hope that the Portal will help to promote meaningful citizen engagement in policy making.