Background

Held annually, these consultations are an opportunity to have your say on the Party’s position on key issues. Submissions made via the process over the year form the starting point for debates at regional conferences throughout the year and at National Conference, which is held in October.

At a glance

The 2018 process will focus on two areas of discussion:

Consultations on these two topics are being opened today, which include a set of questions to guide members’ submissions.

Why these topics?

These topics have been chosen by the NEC because they represent strategically important areas of policy development for the party, and were key topics of discussion at the 2017 Centenary Conference.

Things to do

Party officers are strongly encouraged to arrange a policy discussion for you local party on either or both of the policy topics. Meetings should be scheduled with consideration to May’s local elections, if they are happening in your area, and held in January, February or late May.

Submit a listing of your local event for the Party website

Make a policy submission on behalf of yourself or a local party

To help facilitate your discussions at local meetings, we’ve also produced a ‘Discussion paper’ for each topic, which includes background information as well as a series of prompt questions which may be a helpful starting point.

Deadline

The deadline for submissions from individual members, branches and local parties is Saturday the 30^th June.

What then?

After the deadline, all submissions will be considered by the Policy Subcommittee of the NEC and a report outlining their responses will be published prior to the Party’s annual conference in October.

The submissions and Policy Subcommittee responses will then form the basis of policy debates at annual conference.