The Scottish Government

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ANNEX A: How to respond

Responding to this consultation paper

We are inviting written responses to this consultation paper by Thursday 19 June 2008. Please use the response form enclosed with this paper.

Please send your response to:

or Asl.amendmentbill2008@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

If you have any queries contact Seth Chanas on 0131 244 1481. We would be grateful if you could use the response forms enclosed with this paper as this will aid our analysis of the responses received. If you require more space for your answers, please use additional sheets of paper and clearly mark each response with the appropriate question number. When returning your response to the above address, please arrange the sheets with the completed Respondent Information Form on the front. If you would rather respond via email and it is not convenient to make use of the enclosed response form, please use a standard email clearly marking each response with the appropriate question number and including the information requested on the Respondent Information Form.

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 now 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). SG consult complements, but in no way replaces SG distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all SG 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 enclosed Respondent Information Form with your response 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 If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government are 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 (see Respondent Information Form enclosed with this paper), these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Government Library by 18 July 2008 and on the Scottish Government consultation web pages by 25 July 2008. We will check all responses where agreement to publish has been given for any potentially defamatory material before logging them in the library or placing them on the website. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the SE 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 close of the consultation we will examine all the views submitted carefully. We will then produce a report on the views expressed in the consultation, our responses to them, and any changes to our proposals following the consultation. Subject to the above, the Scottish Government intends to introduce a Bill at the earliest suitable legislative opportunity.

Comments and complaints

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

Seth Chanas

Or e-mail them, marked for Seth Chanas' attention, to: Asl.amendmentbill2008@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

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