Responding To a Consultation

Public consultations are one of the main mechanisms by which governments and local councils engage with the public. When the government wants to introduce new laws and regulations, or a local council wants to enact new measures, it will look to get input from stakeholders and members of the public. Each consultation includes a consultation document which sets out the background to the issue and what new legislation the government is proposing to introduce, or what services the council are proposing to provide or change. This document is meant to help you understand what problem they are trying to resolve and the areas they are looking for feedback on.

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Where can I find a consultation?

All Scottish Government consultations are published online at:
www.consult.gov.scot
If you are interested in Scottish Parliament, your Local Authority, UK Government consultations, visit: https://yourviews.parliament.scot/consultation_finder/sort_on=iconsultable_enddate&st=open&sort_order=ascending&advanced=1
Local Authorities:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?publication_filter_option=consultations
https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations_en
Local Council consultations can typically be found on their individual websites

how can i respond?

Consultations typically will include a series of questions seeking feedback on different aspects of the legislation - sometimes these can be technical but do not worry if you do not feel you have the expertise as you can skip questions.

The final question usually asks for more general feedback and here you can enter the bulk of your response if it has not been covered by the earlier questions. Do not be afraid to share what your views are.

If you need a bit of inspiration, it may be helpful to check out what other organisations have said in their consultation responses e.g. charities who have relevant experiences of the matter. Copies of these are generally posted on organisations’ websites.

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what happens next?

Good question!

Once the consultation closes, responses are collected and analysed.

Within the Scottish Government, responses are studied by a dedicated team of analysts
In most cases, a consultation analysis document is published some time after the closing date, giving detail on the type of feedback that was received and noting key trends
Following the publication of the consultation analysis, the government or council typically outlines actions which will be taken based on the feedback received and how comments will be taken into account in the further development of the policy