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PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM SEXUAL HARM: ANALYSIS OF CONSULTATION RESPONSES
CHAPTER 2: THE CONSULTATION PROCESS
TIMING OF CONSULTATION
The consultation became "live" on 2 July 2004 and closed on 24 September 2004 although responses received shortly after this deadline have been included in the analysis. The scale of the consultation was wide in terms of distribution to stakeholders but moderate in terms of the volume of responses received. Staff in the Scottish Executive's Justice Department supported the exercise.
NATURE OF CONSULTATION
The consultation document comprised 12 pages (plus the draft Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill). The document set out the current legal position relating to grooming behaviour and outlined plans to strengthen the law in this area. Eight specific questions were posed to seek views on the key aspects of the new proposals:
1. Does the new offence set out in Section 1 of the attached draft Bill achieve the objective of ensuring that potential sex offenders meeting or travelling to meet a child following grooming behaviour can be prosecuted? 2. Does the new offence strike the right balance in criminalising activity which involves grooming and then meeting or travelling to meet a child? Or should other activities comprise the criminal offence? 3. Is the proposed penalty set at the right level? 4. Is 18 the right minimum age for the offender or should it be, for example, 16? 5. Would Risk of Sexual Harm Orders be a useful measure in preventing sex offences against children? 6. Does the proposed list of trigger behaviour cover all relevant activities that might prompt application for a RSHO? 7. Should the use of Sexual Offences Prevention Orders be extended to allow them to be imposed at time of sentencing? 8. Are there any other issues in relation to grooming a child for sexual exploitation that we should take into consideration in the proposed Bill? |
NATURE OF RESPONSES
The structure of the consultation document provided a significant steer in promoting some consistency in form of response. Although no formal consultation response form was provided, submissions tended to be tightly structured around the consultation questions posed. In addition, many responses contained further general comments regarding the consultation exercise and/or the protection of children from sexual harm. Most respondents provided commentary on most of the questions tabled. Submissions arrived either by email or hard copy. Most ranged from one page to three pages in length, although a few respondents submitted over 10 pages of comments.
The consultation was dominated by responses from organisations as opposed to individuals. Several respondents exercised their right to remain anonymous and for their responses to be withheld from the public domain. An analysis of the "anonymous" responses is included (although anonymised) here but the full response will not be made available for public scrutiny.
WHO WERE THE RESPONDENTS?
The full list of organisations that responded is documented at Annex 1. Respondents could be grouped into broad categories as shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Respondents by Category
Respondent Category | No. of Responses | % of Responses |
Local Authority | 25 | 35 |
Voluntary Sector | 14 | 20 |
Legal (inc Children's Hearings) | 8 | 11 |
Educational Bodies | 4 | 6 |
Police Bodies | 4 | 6 |
Faith Organisations | 4 | 6 |
Other Public Bodies (inc NHS) | 4 | 6 |
Business | 1 | 1 |
Individuals | 7 | 10 |
TOTAL | 71 | 100 |
NB Percentages may not add to 100% exactly due to rounding
Responses from local authorities comprised the largest category of submissions (35%). The voluntary sector provided the next largest category of respondents (20%), followed by legal bodies including those relating to the Children's Hearings System (11%).
Naming Respondents
After discussion with the client consultation team, it was agreed to preserve anonymity of individual respondents and organisations by attributing their comments and quotes to the grouped respondent category to which they fit. In this way, individual requests for anonymity are met, but a further depth is added to the analysis by providing some contextual information about the respondent type. The terms used to describe the different category of respondent are as follows:
LA | Local Authority |
Vol | Voluntary Sector |
Leg | Legal (including Children's Hearings) |
Educ | Educational Bodies |
Pol | Police Bodies |
Faith | Faith Organisations |
Oth Pub | Oth Public Bodies (including NHS) |
Bus | Business |
Indiv | Respondents replying on an individual basis |
Where similar views have been expressed by a small number of respondents, each of these consultees is referenced. Where many respondents have expressed the same view then the text refers to this without referencing all relevant responses separately.
Gaps in Respondent Type
A scan of the consultee list along with a review of the respondent organisations revealed no obvious gaps. It may however have been useful to have encouraged more responses from representative youth groups to provide a further perspective on issues such as the proposed minimum age of offender.
APPROACH TO ANALYSIS
Analytical Framework
An electronic Excel database was used to store and assist in the analysis of the responses. This database enabled the storage of either free text or numerical data in a systematic manner whilst providing the flexibility for framework amendments should they be required as the work progressed.
The fields used to record the material were based on the questions set out in the consultation document. Once responses had been examined, a small number of additional fields were added to accommodate the further themes which arose. The result was a comprehensive list of fields which formed the headings for the consultation database of responses.
Quantitative Material
Although much of the analysis was based on descriptive free text, some limited scope existed for quantitative analysis and this was exploited. This involved approximate counts of the numbers of respondents who commented on particular topics and, within these groups, the numbers of respondents holding particular views. However, because of the open nature of the consultation, which did not require people to provide a response on every issue and the approach of many consultees in providing more general comments rather than responding to each question posed, quantification of responses was not appropriate in all instances and should be treated as simply indicative and illustrative rather than absolute. In addition, it should be noted that any statistics quoted here cannot be extrapolated to a wider population outwith the consultation population.
Factual Accuracy
The views presented in this analysis have not been vetted in any way for factual accuracy. The opinions and comments submitted to the consultation may be based on fact or may, indeed, be based on what respondents perceive to be accurate from their perspective, but which others may interpret differently. It is important for the analysis to represent views from all perspectives. The report may, therefore, contain analysis of responses which may be factually inaccurate, but are objective in terms of their reflection of strongly held perceptions.
RESPONDENTS VIEWS ON THE CONSULTATION EXERCISE
Several respondents from a range of different respondent categories commented on the consultation document itself and/or the consultation process. Many respondents welcomed the exercise with typical comments being:
"…very glad that this much neglected subject is beginning to receive the amount of serious attention it deserves" (Indiv)
" this document is a welcome move towards recognising the range of behaviours and strategies employed by adults who wish to sexually harm children and young people" (LA)
The consultation document itself was the subject of praise by some, for example:
" this is a very clear and comprehensive document which is very informative about a very difficult and emotive subject" (Oth Pub)
One respondent, however, remarked that they had experienced difficulties in providing an informed response on account of what they saw as a lack of substantive evidence provided in the consultation document (Vol). Another argued that with a longer consultation period, they may have been able to be more active partners in the consultation process rather than simply rushing in a response (Vol).
The following 5 Chapters document the substance of the analysis, presenting the main issues, arguments and recommendations contained in the responses. These follow the ordering of questions raised in the consultation document.
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