Gordon ​Lyons says he won’t ‘outsource’ Stormont policies to lobby groups - as Sinn Fein's 'co-design' scheme scrapped

​Gordon Lyons’ comments come after criticism from MLAs on the communities committee that the minister wasn’t allowing special interest groups ongoing involvement in drafting equality strategies – something which had happened under the previous Sinn Fein minister.

‘Co-design groups’ set up by Deirdre Hargey on strategies for areas such as poverty, gender and disability have effectively been scrapped. The DUP minister says that part of the process is now complete – and it is up to ministers and the Executive to decide how to develop the policies.

Last week MLAs heard complaints from lobby groups that they had been excluded from the ongoing policy development process.

The Women's Resource and Development Agency had contributed to the co-design project on gender. Its Good Relations Coordinator Elaine Crory contrasted the department’s approach with the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls strategy – which she described as “a good model of co-design”.

She said officials had been in contact at every stage and asked for advice. “They were in extremely close communication with us at all times. If there was something you weren’t comfortable with or something you felt needed changed, they took it on board”, she told MLAs.

“There was no part of me that when I opened the final document, was surprised by what I found inside”, she added.

However, in an interview with the News Letter, the communities minister has made clear that his department will not be taking that approach.

Speaking about a range of strategies, Gordon Lyons told the News Letter: “This wasn’t outsourced to these groups for them to say ‘tell us what you want and for us to automatically put those in’.

“As a minister, I have a responsibility to make sure that we have the budget to put in place these measures, that they’re affordable, that they’re value for money, and importantly that they will actually make a difference”.

“While I welcome the input and the work of all interested groups in regards to these strategies, ultimately it’s for democratically elected ministers and the Assembly to take policy decisions”, Mr Lyons said.

“I know some of those groups are disappointed with the fact that not necessarily all of those recommendations will be taken forward, but that's a role for ministers and the executive ultimately, to decide otherwise.

“What would be the point of having ministers in place if you just outsource this to other groups?”, he added.

In last week’s communities committee some of the groups involved in the Gender Equality Strategy expressed concern that their organisations’ names should not be attached to a strategy that they had not agreed.

At a recent meeting of Stormont’s Executive Office committee, the Women’s Rights Network NI told MLAs that they had not been consulted at all. Sinn Fein, SDLP and Alliance MLAs criticised their contribution at a tense meeting on equality law – after they argued for single sex spaces for women and girls.

Asked if he would include the views of such groups in future, Gordon Lyons said of the previous ‘co-design’ groups: “these aren't necessarily the people that I would have put on these groups”.

He added: “It will be broadened out to other others, it'll certainly be out to wider to public consultation. And there may be other groups at that stage that I then believe it's appropriate for me to to look at as well”.

He said some of the groups involved to date “were seen or viewed in the previous Minister's eyes, as being the right people to consult on these”.

“But some of these issues can be contentious, the sexual orientation strategy, for example, or the gender equality strategy as well. Some of these now come into conflicting spaces, and might not be that that straightforward”, the minister added.

He said a long-delayed sexual orientation strategy would include a broader range of views than have been considered thus far – including so-called ‘gender critical’ groups.

“There has been a bit of a separation already between some of the LGB and the T groups, because of the impact that has on women. That's why it’s really important that if progress is to be made on these issues, that we get it right.

“As an executive, we want to make sure that we can protect people. But we also need to make sure that we're protecting freedom of speech as well, that we're not coercing people into doing things or taking stands or positions that they shouldn't want to, and that's very much the attitude that I will be taking”.