Want to talk to you about way in which government consults and improvements we need to make. Improvements in consultation are a central part of our efforts to encourage greater openness and responsiveness in government. We have asked for views on the draft Consultation Code of Practice.

The code of practice on written consultation is a start, but only a start. What we want from you are your reactions to the code.

We want to learn from your experience of what works, and what does not.

But we see a key continuing role for you in consultation. We need departments to have a central consultation co-ordinator:

• somebody who will monitor and evaluate their organisation’s consultation practice, and
• play a vital role in feeding in to the centre.

We want to draw on your experience. We hope that you will take on that role.

Have to ensure that we reflect the widest possible range of opinions in developing our policies and services. That means we have to reach out to people. And we have to make it easy for them to respond.

That includes service users and people affected by policies. It also includes people in the front-line, delivering services and administering policies. Often we ignore them, and deprive ourselves of valuable expertise.

And we have got to take consultation seriously. The main reason for doing it is to improve proposals - to draw on people’s ideas and experience.

We need to reflect with an open mind on all views submitted, and explain to people why we have favoured some options and not others.

Information Technology can make consultation easier and more effective. But we must make sure that we consult the right people – not all our consumers have access to IT. [Information rich/information poor]

Code reflects all these principles. It reflects:

• feedback from earlier guidance;
• recommendations of the Neill Committee;
• points that business leaders have made to us about the burden of consultation.

It emphasises reaching all affected groups in the community.

We are setting up a central Internet-based register (or one-stop shop) of the main consultations going on. In the near future, the citizen can opt to be notified by e-mail when a consultation takes place in an area that interests him or her. But need help of departments and agencies if it is to be a success.

You will need to publish key details of consultations, and consultation documents on web sites, and tell the No 10 Strategic Communications Unit a couple of days before the consultation documents is published. There are always those outside government who are only too ready to knock the way we consult, so important we get this right and maintain credibility of what we are doing.

Code stresses people need time to respond sensibly.

There is often a temptation on government to move quickly, squeezing times for consultation. Maybe right in a few cases where urgent action is sometimes genuinely necessary. But more often than has been done in the past, we should take time to listen. Need to give organisations and individuals time to think and formulate views. So we have suggested in the Code that 12 weeks is adopted as a common standard for response times.

Code also brings out the burden consultation imposes on people - often people who cannot devote specialist staff to responding to consultations, like small business. If we want people’s views, we ought to make it easy for them to us to us. Consultation documents need to be focused and simple as possible, to make it easier for people and organisations to respond.

And the code emphasises the need to assess responses carefully, and explain why some options have been favoured and others not.

Need to ensure all consultations are carried out to the same high standard and that outcomes are as transparent and open as possible.

Important that consultations are monitored to ensure that the Consultation Code, and good practice generally, are followed. Ideally a single official should have this responsibility: perhaps the consumer champion?

Departments should make available annual statistical and qualitative assessments.

Finally, we need to learn what has been done well, and what badly.

The Prime Minister has given his personal endorsement to the code. To help make sure the Code is complied with, the seven criteria will have to be reproduced in consultation documents. Sometimes departures will be justified: consultations are so varied in nature that it is impossible to lay down hard and fast rules. But there will have to be an explanation.

As you know, we are consulting on the Code itself: consultation period closed Friday. But would be interested to hear your reactions to it.

Written consultations are only small part of the bigger picture. As the Code says, other methods of consulting often right, particularly at an earlier stage of developing a policy or service, or to supplement a written consultation.

Know from experience when in the DTI how valuable pre-consultations can be. One of the most difficult areas of law in Britain has been the acquired rights directive. We had a requirement to refurbish this. Rather than going to consultation, we established a pre-consultation committee made up of the key stakeholders: the legal profession, the trade unions and employers.

They took ownership of the process. As a consequence, consultation that will come from that, is in the ownership of that group. They have, between themselves settled the differences between them. If a consultation document is published, it will not be one that has been written by officials and politicians in isolation. The practitioners who deal with this complex area of law on a day to day basis, have been involved right at the outset in putting forward what the solution should be. I think we need to do more of this across the board.

IT opens up new ways of consulting, for example web forums. We can question how representative they are, and they are probably never going to be the only way to consult on an issue, but they give ideas and views we might not get otherwise.

Listening exercises we have held for women, older people and younger people have been valuable: they have enabled us to reach people in a way that classic consultations have not.

You will probably have heard of the People’s Panel. The Panel is made up of over 5,000 people who we consult on a wide range of issues: from attitudes to biosciences (? check) to demand for access to public services outside normal working hours. Any public sector organisation can use the Panel. We have also recently recruited an additional 830 Panel members from ethnic minority communities to tell us about the particular problems they face when accessing services.

And, of course, there is the consumer focus itself and the role of the Consumer Champions. One of the most important things we have done in this field. As you know, under the consumer focus, we are looking to you to identify users priorities and examine consumer satisfaction by carrying out regular research and consultation. But listening and consulting is pointless unless you respond to consumer preferences at all levels in your organisations. To see through the necessary changes is your key role.

Government needs to find new ways of working in closer partnership with the community, responding to its needs and wishes, tapping new sources of experiences and ideas. We must ensure, of course, that consultation is a prelude to action, not a substitute for it.

The Consultation Code of Practice has a limited, but important role in advance the objectives I have outlined. Believe it will raise the quality of consultations and help achieve a high standard of effectiveness in way government consults. Will benefit all - public and business. And consumer champions have a key role to play.