A series of twelve regional stakeholders events are being held over the summer to capture the views of green groups, energy companies and businesses.

The government’s discussion with the public about the country’s future energy moved up a gear today with the first event which took place in Newcastle.

Attending the event today was Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks.

He said: “Keeping the lights on for the decades ahead while also cutting carbon emissions is one of the biggest challenges of our time. The Government’s Energy White Paper sets out a range of responses, including increased energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage and more renewable generation such as offshore wind farms.

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“The Government also believes that new nuclear power stations should be an option for energy companies in the future, but we want to consult as widely as possible on this before making a decision.

“We’re part way through a 20 week consultation and I want as many people as possible to feed into that via the interactive website.”

The deliberate exercise, involving a demographically representative sample of 1,100 UK citizens, will take place simultaneously in nine cities across the UK on Saturday 8 September.

Viki Cooke, Joint Chief Executive of Opinion Leader Research said: "The deliberative events are designed to give participants information about the issues and time to debate and discuss them with others. We will use a wide range of interactive techniques to engage participants and help make the information accessible.

"Each event will be demographically representative of the region or nation where it is being held, enabling us to build up a robust picture of the general public's views at a national level."

The consultation is running for 20 weeks in total, significantly longer than standard government consultations.

The Government has commissioned a range of specialist organisations to conduct and evaluate the consultation.

(JM/SP)