12th Report - UK's progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Voluntary National Review

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government's response to the Committee's fourteen recommendations on the Voluntary National Review (VNR) is mixed, with each marked as Agree, Partially Agree or Disagree.

• On a mechanism for stakeholder engagement on domestic SDG implementation, it "Partially Agree[s]" and says early scoping work is underway, involving DFID and the Cabinet Office, alongside a lessons learnt survey and a stakeholder roundtable.
• It disagrees that a separate mechanism for the UK's global contribution to the SDGs is needed, stating that it does "not consider it necessary to also establish a new international stakeholder engagement mechanism".
• On responsibility for the SDGs, it partially agrees, saying DFID "is best placed to retain oversight of the Goals" while the Cabinet Office leads a review of ministerial and official level structures.
• It agrees on the Prime Minister attending the UN SDG Summit, saying "We expect the Prime Minister to attend UNGA including the SDG Summit". It disagrees that Parliament should take forward a peer review panel.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error