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Smoking in Public Places
A Consultation on Reducing Exposure to Second Hand Smoke
Key Findings of Responses to a Public Consultation

CHAPTER 2: THE CONSULTATION PROCESS

TIMING OF CONSULTATION

2.1 The consultation became "live" on 7 June 2004 and closed on 8 October 2004. Originally timetabled to end on 30 September 2004, the consultation period was subsequently extended by a week in order to accept late responses. In total 53,474 responses were received, providing a wide range of views and information for consideration.

2.2 The consultation document ( Appendix 1) set out the background to the consultation, highlighted the key topics for consideration and posed a series of questions to which respondents were invited to respond. The questions focused on 6 broad topic areas:

• Whether further action needs to be taken to reduce people's exposure to second-hand smoke

• Whether individuals would support a law that would make enclosed public places smoke-free

• Whether there should be any exemptions if a law is introduced

• What could be done to encourage individual businesses to take voluntary action to become smoke-free or to provide more smoke-free provision

• What else could be done to reduce people's exposure to second-hand smoke

• Details of any other views on smoking in public places

2.3 Respondents were invited to provide a "tick box" response to the 3 key questions with the option to provide additional comments.

2.4 A key concern was to develop a consultation document which encouraged a wide range of individuals, groups and organisations to submit their views. To this end the public consultation document was developed by the consultation team and piloted with the assistance of the Scottish Civic Forum to ensure it was in an accessible format. In addition, at the launch of the consultation, consultation papers were distributed to a wide range of organisations and individuals with a professional interest in the smoking in public places debate. In order to make the consultation paper widely available, copies were also distributed via a variety of different locations such as doctors' surgeries, libraries and other civic locations. The consultation paper was also available on the Scottish Executive website for any interested individuals.

2.5 Aside from individuals who had access to the consultation paper, the paper was also distributed to a number of organisation types and these included :

• Business organisations

• Community organisations

• Health organisations

• Justice interests

• Local authorities

• Trade unions

• Transport organisations

• Voluntary organisations

• Other

2.6 Two very distinct types of response came into this consultation exercise. The first was free-flowing commentary from businesses and organisations, and the second was questionnaire responses primarily from the general public.

Organisations / Professionals

2.7 Of the 1,033 businesses and organisations responding to the consultation, 179 responded with relatively lengthy and free-flowing commentary, with views that were based on their experience and understanding of smoking in enclosed public places. These 179 respondents did not use the questionnaire issued by the Scottish Executive with the public consultation paper. Given the depth and breadth of comments from these organisations, their responses were entered into a bespoke database designed specifically for this element of the public consultation paper.

Organisational respondents could be grouped into broad categories as shown in table 2.1.

Respondents by Category

2.8 The single largest organisation type responding to this consultation was health organisations (30% of responses). Local authorities and business organisations accounted for 15% and 11% of responses respectively. Other groups were represented among these responses, although only two community organisations and trade unions, and only one justice related interest and one transport organisation responded to this public consultation paper. Eighteen responses were received from organisations classified under "other" and these included academic institutions and leisure organisations.

Gaps in Respondent Type

2.9 A scan of the respondent list along with a review of the respondent organisations revealed no obvious gaps, although the four types of organisation least well represented were community organisations, justice interests, trade unions and transport organisations. Key sectors including health authorities and businesses within the hospitality and leisure sectors were represented within this consultation.

Responses from the General Public

2.10 Members of the general public who chose to respond to this consultation did so by using the questionnaire issued by the Scottish Executive with the public consultation paper. While views were very broad ranging, questionnaire responses were not generally as extensive as some of the free-flowing responses from businesses and organisations. All 53,474 responses were entered into a specific data processing package designed to deal with large numbers of responses.

2.11 A huge number of responses 52,441 were received from the general public. The profile of those responding is shown in the following table. In terms of gender, broadly similar proportions of males and females responded to this exercise. When we examine age groups, a majority of those responding were in the 25 - 59 age grouping. The bulk of respondents are non smokers and the majority of responses have come in via the questionnaire form.

Respondent Profile - General Public Questionnaire Responses

2.12 Most responses were from members of the general public. However, organisations or groups who submitted a response to the consultation using the Scottish Executive questionnaire were also included in this analysis.

2.13 In order to compare all responses to the consultation in this final report, organisations and professionals submitting lengthier responses (179) were also incorporated into the final analysis of responses to the consultation using a data processing package. The way in which analysis for all responses was approached is provided in the following chapter.

Organisations / Professionals

2.14 The structure of the consultation document provided a significant steer in promoting some consistency in form of response. Most of the responses from organisations were organised broadly around the 6 key questions posed in the public consultation document. Responses ranged from one page submissions to relatively long arguments sent with supporting attachments. Most of the responses were issued by organisations or individuals who could base their views on their professional and/or personal experience and insight into smoking issues in Scotland.

General Public

2.15 The structure of the consultation questionnaire document provided a framework within which members of the general public could provide their views. Most responses were relatively brief and some members of the general public chose not to answer some of the specific questions that had been posed. For each question, respondents were given the opportunity to provide supporting text.

Focus of responses

2.16 Although the consultation document asked respondents about their views on all public places, where public places were mentioned, the focus for much of the responses was on pubs and clubs and views tended to be expressed about these public places in particular.

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