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2 INTRODUCTION
The consultation on the Lowlands and Uplands Scotland 2007-2013 Operational Programmes was launched on 24 October 2006 and was completed on 8 January 2007. The consultation covered the two programmes for the region under the new Competitiveness Objective of the 2007-2013 Structural Funds period: one European Regional Development Fund ( ERDF) Programme and one European Social Fund ( ESF) Programme. The consultation was held in parallel with the consultation of the Operational Programmes for the Highlands and Islands under the Convergence Objective. In addition to being a domestic and EU requirement, the consultation allowed a wide range of partners and stakeholders to comment on the proposed Operational Programmes before their final revision and submission to the European Commission for negotiation and approval.
The consultation documents were made available using several media. The principal distribution method was through the Scottish Executive's Structural Funds website - www.scotland.gov.uk/structuralfunds - on which there was a dedicated and signposted page for the consultation. The document was also available in paper format and distributed at the request of individuals. Copies were also presented at key meetings with partners, as discussed in more detail below.
Over three hundred partners were informed of the consultation via an e-mail alert, through newspaper notices, through the Executive's own consultation website, and through key meetings with stakeholders, such as the Programme Monitoring Committees of the current 2000-2006 programme. As part of the consultation, a number of equality organisations were invited to discuss specific issues relating to equal opportunities, which included access to the consultation.
In addition to the written submissions for the consultation, there were two other parallel forms of engagement with partners as part of the consultation. First, a series of workshops on individual priorities in the Programmes were held with partners. Eight meetings were held through November and December. The workshops typically had up to 15 participants drawn on the basis of representing key partners organisations, reflecting the breadth of geographical and sectoral interest in the region and including specific individual Structural Funds expertise and experience. The current document does not directly reflect the views of the Group, which are recorded elsewhere, although the views will also inform the final shape of the Programmes. Separate Scotland-wide workshops were also held in November with partners on the two horizontal themes for the programmes - environmental sustainability and equal opportunities.
Second, a Strategic Environmental Assessment ( SEA) was conducted of the ERDF Programme. Following consultation with the environmental agencies, a SEA was deemed not to be required for the ESF Programme. The SEA followed the Executive's clear procedures, was led by an external consultant ( RSK/ NSR) and involved full co-ordination with the designated SEA authorities (Historic Scotland, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Scottish Natural Heritage). An Environmental Report was prepared for a consultation that ran in parallel with the main consultation, finishing at the end of January. The responses to that consultation and the Executive's proposed course of action in response is treated separately as part of the SEA. The SEA will also feed into any revision of the Programmes. More detail can be found on the Executive's Structural Funds website.
The current document has two purposes: summary and analysis of consultee responses; and response by the Executive. The summary of the consultation responses was conducted internally by officials in the European Structural Funds Division. The findings presented reflect general and key points emerging from the consultation, but do not provide an exhaustive summary of all issues raised. Unless designated confidential, all consultation responses are publicly available through the Executive's Structural Funds web-page. The findings are subject to the specific consultation exercise and do not necessarily reflect the weight or range of views within the population or sub-populations as a whole. The findings have been summarised under each of the 16 questions in the consultation (grouped by subject area). The Executive's response to views are given at each question.
In addition, an overview of the responses is presented at the start of the document and a list of respondents is given at Annex A. An executive summary is also included.
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