To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to outline (i) any plans to develop guidance for departmental officials in relation to the steps needed to consider rural needs when developing, adopting, implementing or revising policies, strategies and plans and designing and delivering public services; and (ii) plans to measure and evaluate outcomes.

The Rural Needs Act (NI) 2016, which will come into operation first for Northern Ireland departments and district councils in June 2017, provides a statutory basis for an existing Executive commitment to undertake rural proofing of all new and revised policies and strategies across government.

The existing guidance on rural proofing “Thinking Rural”: The Essential Guide to Rural Proofing”, which can be accessed at the link below, will be reviewed and updated to take account of the new statutory requirements.

https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/dard/guide-to-rural-proofing.pdf

This will be carried out by the Rural Development Council under its contract to provide support services to the Rural Network for the 2014-20 Rural Development Programme. They will also develop monitoring arrangements for rural proofing and a framework for measuring its impact on rural communities which can be used by public authorities to measure the outcome of their policies and strategies.

These supporting arrangements will be in place before the Act comes into operation on 1 June 2017.