The Scottish Government

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Climate Change and Water Industry Directorate
Climate Change Division
T: 0131-244 0732 F: 0131-244 0211
E:scottishclimatechangebill@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

29 January 2008

Dear Consultee

Consultation on Proposals for a Scottish Climate Change Bill

Bringing forward a Scottish Climate Change Bill is a key commitment for the Scottish Government. Scotland can play a leading role internationally in taking action on climate change. The Bill will create a long-term framework for the current and successive administrations in Scotland to ensure that we reduce our emissions by 80% by 2050. This framework will help build a sustainable future for Scotland: it will contribute to the country's sustainable economic growth by moving the public and private sectors towards a low carbon economy.

The Scottish Government is today publishing a consultation document which sets out our proposals for a Scottish Climate Change Bill and seeks your views on options for the Bill. Our objective for this consultation is to ensure that all interested parties have the opportunity to contribute their opinions at an early stage of policy development. We are asking important questions about the shape of our policy proposals and what issues should be taken into account when developing the Bill. The consultation document and accompanying material are available from the Scottish Climate Change Bill website: www.scotland.gov.uk/climatechangebill.

Responding to this consultation

We are inviting written responses to this consultation by 23 April 2008.

It will help us if you send your response using the electronic form on the website. The form includes all of the questions in the consultation and text boxes in which to provide your answers. You can respond to as many or as few questions as you wish. The online response form will allow you to paste text from another document should you wish to prepare your response separately.

Alternatively, you can send responses by e-mail to scottishclimatechangebill@scotland.gsi.gov.uk; or in hardcopy to

The Scottish Government

Please note, late responses cannot be accepted because we are working to a tight timetable to introduce the Bill into Parliament and it takes a number of months to draft a Bill.

The consultation is being sent to a wide range of organisations across the public, private and third sectors, including local government, business and industry and non-governmental organisations. A full list of the organisations consulted will be available on the Scottish Climate Change Bill website. Please feel free to forward the consultation document on to any interested party, or refer them to our website.

Regulatory Impact Assessment and Environmental Report

We are also seeking information to help us fully to assess the potential environmental, economic and social impact of our proposals. When responding to the consultation we would welcome comments on the partial Regulatory Impact Assessment and the draft Environmental Report, giving supporting evidence wherever possible. Both of these documents are available on our website. Because neither the partial Regulatory Impact Assessment nor the draft Environmental Report contain specific questions, there is no online response form for them. Responses should be send directly to the e-mail or postal addresses above.

Printed copies and alternative formats

In order to save resources by limiting the amount of paper we use, this has been designed as an internet-based consultation. However, if you wish to obtain a printed copy of the consultation document, the partial Regulatory Impact Assessment or the draft Environmental Report, or require alternative formats, please contact the Climate Change Bill Team at the e-mail or postal addresses above or by telephone on 0131 244 0732.

Handling your response

We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are content for your response to be made public. For that reason, please complete and return the Respondent Information Form as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. For ease of use, the Respondent Information Form is incorporated into the beginning of the online response form and a copy is also included below at Annex A of this letter if you choose to respond by e-mail or post, or are also commenting on the partial Regulatory Impact Assessment or the draft Environmental Report. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

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.

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be published, these will be available to the public in the Scottish Government Library and on the Scottish Government consultation web pages by the end of May 2008. All responses not marked confidential will be checked for any possible defamatory material prior to publication. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the Library on 0131 244 4556. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.

What happens next?

Following the closing date on 23 April 2008, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help the Scottish Government reach a decision on what is to be included in the Bill. A full analysis of the responses will be published in the summer. The Government aims to have the Bill ready for introduction to the Scottish Parliament before the end of 2008.

Comments

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted (as opposed to the content of the consultation paper), please send them to the e-mail or postal addresses above.

List of annexes

The following annexes are attached to this letter:
Annex A: Respondent Information Form
Annex B: The Scottish Government Consultation Process

We look forward to receiving your responses to this consultation.

Yours sincerely,
Philip Wright
Deputy Director
Climate Change Division

Annex A RESPONDENT INFORMATION FORM

CONSULTATION ON PROPOSALS FOR A SCOTTISH CLIMATE CHANGE BILL

Please complete the details below and return it with your response. This will help ensure we handle your response appropriately. Thank you for your help.

Annex B The Scottish Government Consultation Process

Consultation is an essential and important aspect of Scottish Government working methods. Given the wide-ranging areas of work of the Scottish Government, there are many varied types of consultation. However, in general, Scottish Government consultation exercises aim to provide opportunities for all those who wish to express their opinions on a proposed area of work to do so in ways which will inform and enhance that work.

The Scottish Government encourages consultation that is thorough, effective and appropriate to the issue under consideration and the nature of the target audience. Consultation exercises take account of a wide range of factors, and no two exercises are likely to be the same.

Typically Scottish Government consultations involve a written paper inviting answers to specific questions or more general views about the material presented. Written papers are distributed to organisations and individuals with an interest in the issue, and they are also placed on the Scottish Government web site enabling a wider audience to access the paper and submit their responses. Consultation exercises may also involve seeking views in a number of different ways, such as through public meetings, focus groups or questionnaire exercises. Copies of all the written responses received to a consultation exercise (except those where the individual or organisation requested confidentiality) are placed in the Scottish Government library at Saughton House, Edinburgh (K Spur, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XD, telephone 0131 244 4556).

All Scottish Government consultation papers and related publications ( e.g., analysis of response reports) can be accessed at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations.

The views and suggestions detailed in consultation responses are analysed and used as part of the decision making process, along with a range of other available information and evidence. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise the responses received may:

• indicate the need for policy development or review
• inform the development of a particular policy
• help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals
• be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented

Final decisions on the issues under consideration will also take account of a range of other factors, including other available information and research evidence.

While details of particular circumstances described in a response to a consultation exercise may usefully inform the policy process, consultation exercises cannot address individual concerns and comments, which should be directed to the relevant public body.

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