My honourable friend the Minister of State for Pensions and the Ageing Society (Angela Eagle) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I am pleased to announce the publication today of Building a Society for All Ages—consultation response.

In July 2009, we published Building a Society for All Ages, the Government’s strategy for addressing the opportunities and challenges of our ageing society. This sets out the changes we all need to make to adapt to the fact that we are all living longer and provides a co-ordinated package of strategic reforms to enable people to prepare for and live well in later life. The strategy was subject to a full formal public consultation, running from July to October 2009.

As part of the consultation process we organised events across the country to hear peoples’ views and experiences as well as seeking feedback by online responses and via the post. We received 345 written responses and around 600 people participated in discussion events. Today we are publishing a summary of what we have heard both in written responses to the consultation questions and at consultation events. It also provides an update on how the initiatives set out in the strategy have developed as a result of this feedback.

Key developments are aimed at driving changes in attitudes towards older people and improving service delivery. We have now co-produced A Good Place to Grow Older—a National Commitment with national bodies which represent a whole range of local service deliverers and key government departments. The commitment sets out a number of specific pledges which its signatories have committed to adopt and translate into action to deliver the strategy at a local level.

In January we launched the £2.9 million “Get Digital” programme which will soon provide around 7,800 people in sheltered housing with access to computers and the training they need to make the most of the new technology on offer.

Copies are available in the Vote Office and the Printed Paper Office.