The Mini-Public on the Future of Nuclear Power was launched by the British government in 2007. It involved 949 participants across nine deliberative events—in Edinburgh, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leicester, Norwich, Cardiff, London, Exeter and Belfast—on 8 September 2007.
Problems and Purpose
In 2007 the government launched a consultation about the possible role for nuclear power within the energy policy framework set out in the 2007 Energy White Paper, not a consultation on energy policy itself. The consultation document on the future of nuclear power was launched in parallel with the Government’s 2007 Energy White Paper. The central part of this consultation was a large-scale deliberative process modelled on previous ‘citizens’ summits’ (i.e. Your Health, Your Say; National Pensions Debate). The objective of the deliberative events was to engage a demographically representative sample of UK citizens in an informed debate and to enable the Government to understand the views of such people on the Government’s preliminary view on nuclear energy as outlined in the consultation document.
Background History and Context
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
Opinion Leader on behalf of the Government led nine deliberative events with 949 participants across the UK on 8 September 2007.
Participant Recruitment and Selection
Citizens were recruited to be demographically representative of the UK population.
Methods and Tools Used
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
An analysis report on the findings from the deliberative events with members of the public was written by Opinion Leader and released in December 2007. In May 2007, the government published its Energy White Paper ‘Meeting the Energy Challenge’, which covered a range of energy issues including nuclear power. At the same time, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI, in June 2007 renamed the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform – BERR), launched a consultation document entitled ‘The Future of Nuclear Power: The Role of Nuclear Power in a Low Carbon UK Economy’, seeking "views on the information and arguments set out on whether the private sector should be allowed to build new nuclear power stations."
Yet there remained a concern that the way government approached this consultation may have advanced a pre-ordained solution to a well-rehearsed problem. The DTI, which ran the consultation, had already said that it continued to believe in nuclear power. Gordon Brown told MPs in July 2007, "we have made the decision to continue with nuclear power" even before the new consultation had run half its course – and before the citizens’ summit had taken place. Nonetheless, the government claimed the new consultation process as justifying its announcement in January 2008 that "new nuclear power stations should have a role to play in this country’s future energy mix…it would be in the public interest to allow energy companies the option of investing in new nuclear power stations". The main criticism was that the summit and wider consultation was used to legitimise a pre-ordained direction of travel. People have questioned the balance of the material and design of the events. Therefore, it is difficult to gauge the extent to which the summit genuinely influenced government policy.
Analysis and Lessons Learned
See Also
References
External Links
Notes
This entry is based on the POLITICIZE dataset. More information can be found at the following links:
- Paulis, Emilien; Pilet, Jean-Benoit; Panel, Sophie; Vittori, Davide; Close, Caroline, 2020, "POLITICIZE Dataset", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/Z7X6GT, Harvard Dataverse, V1
- Pilet J-B, Paulis E, Panel S.,Vitori D & Close C. 202X The POLITICIZE Dataset: an inventory of Deliberative Mini-Publics (DMPs) in Europe. European Political Science.