Work continues on the Public Access to Information (PATI) bill said Premier Ewart Brown, who has denied that Government was dragging its feet.

PATI has been on the cards in Bermuda since Premier Alex Scott promised it in the 2003 Throne Speech but more than five years later a draft bill has yet to be approved by Cabinet or put before MPs.

This newspaper launched its A Right to Know: Giving People Power campaign more than a year ago, urging Government to introduce PATI as law.

Yesterday Premier Brown told Parliament that PATI was being worked on by the Central Policy Unit this year.

He said: "In conjunction with the Attorney General's Chambers the CPU aims to complete a Public Access To Information bill."

Opposition Works and Engineering spokeswoman Patricia Gordon-Pamplin welcomed the statement but said there seemed to be no urgency in getting it done.

"What we have seen during the course of the last little while is every time there is a question it is denigrated to the point of ridicule."

The Premier said the Attorney General's team was working "hard and steady" on the project.

"There is no evidence that this legislation is being held up for any strange reason."

And he said the CPU would continue work on a plan to "strategically maximise the operational effectiveness of Bermuda's municipal operations so as to be reflective of the overall strategic and policy aims of the Government of Bermuda".

Sustainable development will this year be "elevated by Government to a significantly higher profile" now that Government had released the plan which outlines objectives, said the Premier.

And two new technical officers are to be added to the Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) at no extra cost to Government said the Premier.

The SDU will carry out sustainability impact assessments on Government and the private sector. An educators' kit will go to schools.