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1 Introduction
This report presents an analysis of the responses to the 2007-2013 Scotland Rural Development Programme Consultation document (hereafter referred to as the SRDP Consultation document). In addition, the report provides participants' views given at public meetings which were held as part of the consultation. The consultation was organised by the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department ( SEERAD) who also commissioned this report.
The consultation period ran through spring and summer 2006. There was a launch of the SRDP Consultation document on 4th April to which stakeholders and senior EC officials were invited and at which the Minister for Environment and Rural Development gave a presentation. The consultation ran for 12 weeks until 30th June and nine public meetings were held around Scotland during this period. SEERAD staff also gave presentations to a number of key stakeholder groups and organisations. The SRDP Consultation document was distributed widely to key stakeholders and those with an interest in land management (over 1400 copies were distributed) and was also made available to members of the public, on request. Additionally the Consultation document was available on-line.
A total of 259 written responses were submitted to SEERAD, from a range of organisations and individuals (see Chapter 6 for a breakdown of respondent types). The responses comprise answers to closed questions ("yes/no/don't know"), as well as extensive textual answers to each of the 21 questions set out in the consultation document.
The analysis of these responses began in early August 2006, and was completed in early September 2006.
The responses have been organised according to: (i) the Section of the SRDP Consultation document, (ii) the question number, and finally - within this structure - (iii) subdivided according to the "themes" which emerged when all textual responses were considered for each question (see Chapter 5 for more details). Thematic analysis is a recognised qualitative approach, and in this context it provides a coherent and valuable evidence base of how the SRDP has been received across Scotland. This extensive evidence, coupled with the data from the closed questions, is indicative of how the proposed content and implementation of the SRDP have been evaluated by a range of respondents.
The Summary of Findings is thus reported by Question, and a list of acronyms is provided in Annex 2, to give guidance on the terminology used by respondents. Following an outline of the wider context within which the SRDP Consultation sits, and a presentation of key elements of the analysis methodology, the analysis of findings are then presented in detail. These comprise responses to the 21 questions, the feedback submitted within the more open-ended "General Comments" section, and the comments raised by participants at the SEERAD-sponsored public consultation meetings.
The analysis concludes (Chapter 11) with a one-page synthesis of the five main themes emerging from the analysis of responses, and represents a distillation of those issues which - from the perspective of respondents to the Consultation - must inform and underpin the next stages of the development of the 2007-2013 SRDP.
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