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How to respond to this consultation paper

We are inviting written responses to this consultation paper by Friday 25 January 2008. Please send your response with a completed Respondent Information Form (see "Handling Your Response", below) to:

disclosureconsultation@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

or

If you have any queries contact Bill Barron on 0131-244-3320.

This consultation document contains 21 questions designated by the letters A - U. We would be grateful if you could clearly indicate in your response which questions or parts of the consultation paper you are responding to as this will aid our analysis of the responses received.

This consultation, and all other Scottish Government consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations. You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is.

The Scottish Government has an email alert system for consultations (SEconsult: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/seconsult.aspx). This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). SEconsult complements, but in no way replaces Scottish Government distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all Scottish Government consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.

Handling your response

We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public. Please complete and return the Respondent Information Form attached to this consultation paper, as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

An interactive version of the Respondent Information Form may be accessed here. After downloading the form, double-clicking on the appropriate boxes will allow you to tick them, and the completed form can then be attached to your email when you send us your comments. A copy of the form is also attached at Appendix B, as an alternative, especially for those who prefer to send comments by post.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, and after we have checked they contain no potentially defamatory material, responses will be made available to the public in the Scottish Government Library and on the Scottish Government consultation web pages by 3 March 2008. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the Scottish Government Library on 0131 244 4552. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.

What happens next ?

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us to reach a decision on the way forward. We aim to issue a report on this consultation process by 30 April 2008.

Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to

disclosureconsultation@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

or

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