The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

SECTION 1: THE CONSULTATION

1.1 This report presents the findings of a consultation on proposals for a Scottish Climate Change Bill which took place from January to April 2008. The report is in a number of sections. This section provides an introduction to the areas covered in the consultation document, as well as a brief outline of the consultation process, methods of analysis and details of respondents. The remaining sections provide an analysis of the responses relating to each of the 4 main themes covered by the consultation questions: targets; supporting framework; reporting and scrutiny framework; and supporting measures; with a final section drawing together some general and cross-cutting issues. There are also 4 annexes. The structure of the report is described in detail at paragraph 1.30 below.

Background

1.2 In June 2007, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth announced the Scottish Government's intention to bring forward a Scottish Climate Change Bill, to:

• Set mandatory targets for emissions reductions.
• Include monitoring arrangements for the targets.
• Set out mechanisms to ensure accountability for the long term goals.

1.3 A UK consultation on a draft Climate Change Bill had been carried out from March to June 2007, and this reported in October 2007. Whilst the UK consultation acknowledged the need to clarify the "complex interplay of reserved and devolved issues" in a number of areas prior to the introduction of the UK Bill to Parliament, it also noted that the devolved governments would require to develop and agree their approach to the issues in the Bill.

1.4 The Scottish Government launched a consultation process in January 2008 and published a consultation document ³ setting out a number of proposals to establish a framework for Scotland. This long term framework is intended to guide Scotland to a low carbon economy and provide the basis for action to 2050, enabling a reduction in emissions and setting the context in which action can be taken to mitigate the impact of climate change and to adapt to changes. The Scottish Government stressed from the outset that this was not a general consultation about how to meet the proposed targets, but focused particularly on the establishment of the legal framework for Scotland (and technical issues relating to this).

The consultation document

1.5 The consultation document covered the following issues:

• An introduction to climate change (including the scale of the issue, the need for action and the purpose of the consultation) - Section 2.
• The need for a Bill (including the reasons for the Scottish Government bringing legislation forward) - Section 3.
• The context and background to climate change (including information on the broad issues related to climate change) - Section 4.
• Targets (covering how a statutory target should be designed) - Section 5.
• Supporting framework (including issues such as: interim targets; budgets; and banking and borrowing) - Section 6.
• Reporting and scrutiny framework (including issues such as reporting requirements; accountability; independent advice, monitoring and scrutiny) - Section 7.
• Supporting measures (covering measures which could be included in the Bill to enable or require action in specific areas, and amendments to existing legislation) - Section 8.

1.6 Within the document, views were sought on 33 specific questions. The document contained a summary of these questions in Section 9 (see Annex 1 of this report). It also included sources of further information in Section 10, and a glossary of terms in Section 11 (see Annex 4 of this report).

The consultation process

1.7 The formal consultation process consisted of two main strands: written responses to the consultation document and a series of consultation events.

1.8 Written responses to the consultation document were sought on a response form (which could be submitted by post and e-mail). There were 33 specific questions, on which full responses (including technical information) could be provided. As the questions were open-ended, the written consultation generated wide-ranging and detailed information.

1.9 Four consultation events were held with key stakeholder groups as part of the consultation process in February and March 2008. The aim of this part of the consultation was to gather the views of specific groups and to feed these views into the wider consultation process. There were facilitated small group discussions at these events, considering specific questions which were relevant to the participants, and a summary of the themes considered at each meeting is provided at Annex 2 of this report.

Submissions and respondents

1.10 A large number of respondents had an input to the consultation, through both strands of the process.

The written consultation

1.11 Submissions to the written consultation were analysed by type, and although it is recognised that this involves an element of subjective judgement, it was possible to assign the responses to broad categories (whilst recognising the limitations of this). Responses were received from the following ⁴:

• Academic and research institutions (e.g. universities and colleges, study centres, research centres etc.).
• Business and industry (e.g. companies).
• Individuals.
• Non-governmental organisations (e.g. charities, churches and faith groups, issue-based and campaigning groups etc.).
• Political parties.
• Public sector (e.g. local authorities and groupings of these, commissions and networks and other public bodies).
• Schools.
• Trade and professional organisations (e.g. federations, associations, chartered institutions, professional bodies, councils of industries, unions, groups and societies).

There was also a large number of "campaign responses" where a series of identical (or very similar) responses were submitted as part of a campaign (and these are discussed below).

1.12 The total number of written responses by type of respondent (excluding the campaign responses) is set out in the table below:

Table 1. Pattern of responses by type of respondent

"Campaign" responses

1.13 A total of 8 campaigns ran over the course of this consultation, generating almost 21,000 responses. A summary of the main points made in the campaign responses is provided at Annex 3. The total number of responses received from each campaign is set out in the table below:

Table 2. Responses received by campaign

1.14 The core texts from each campaign were treated as discrete consultation responses, included in the analysis and reflected in this report ⁶. A specific and unusual issue arose with some of the campaign responses in this consultation, where these were based upon the main campaign text, but involved some changes to the content, with an expressed view that they be included and analysed as individual responses. It was agreed that the Scottish Government would sift campaign responses to identify those which contained additional material to the campaigns' suggested texts. A total of 420 campaign responses with additional material were identified. All of the additional material has been analysed, and has been included in this report ⁷.

1.15 A further variant of this approach was employed by Friends of the Earth (FoE). Respondents were able to create a "response", the elements of which were drawn at random from a series of pre-prepared statements. An analysis was undertaken by the Scottish Government which identified that a total of 98 statements had been used, covering all 33 questions in the consultation. In addition, a total of 17 statements were identified which were not directly linked to any question. All of these statements (115) have been analysed and reflected in this report. In 16 cases, respondents added individual comments in addition to those automatically generated by FoE. All of these comments have been analysed and included in the report.

The form of the responses

1.16 Amongst the 318 responses to the written consultation strand which were neither campaigns nor events (discussed below), a total of 276 were submitted electronically, with the remainder (42) being submitted on paper. Of the latter, those which were in typescript were scanned while those which were handwritten (6) were typed into separate Microsoft Word documents. They were then analysed using the method described at 1.21 below.

1.17 While some used the on-line form provided, others did not. Some followed the general structure of the questions, or provided information following the broad pattern of the themes (although not the specific questions), while others did not structure their response in this way. A small number of respondents addressed only one question (or provided material related to one question) but most addressed more than half of the questions. Some respondents appended additional supporting papers.

Events

1.18 Findings have been included from a total of 4 events with stakeholder groups. These events were organised by the Scottish Government, in partnership with COSLA, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise. The numbers attending ranged from around 30 to 60, and involved in-depth discussions of some of the issues in the consultation document (tailored to the interests and expertise of the attendees). A wealth of detail was provided during these discussions.

1.19 All of the proceedings of the events were recorded and summarised, with a report prepared of each meeting, forming the basis of summary feedback to the Scottish Government. The draft reports were validated by the organisations that assisted with the arrangement of the events, and were made available online. The summary material from each event was also considered as a consultation response ⁸.

Analysis and presentation of the data

1.20 The following material was included in the analysis:

• 318 written responses.
• 8 campaign texts.
• 420 campaign responses containing additional material to the campaigns' suggested texts.
• 4 events.

1.21 Overall, the analysis of the data involved the following stages:

• Input of all written responses to an Access database designed around the questions in the consultation document.
• Preparation of summary reports of each of the consultation events and input of these at the appropriate points in the Access database.
• Identification of key themes, and the organisation of comments into a series of issue-based "books".
• Identification of sub-themes and detailed comments.
• Preparation of the report.

Presentation of the data

1.22 The main focus of the report is on qualitative analysis and presentation, reflecting the nature of the material received. A small amount of quantitative analysis has been undertaken where possible, but this is largely limited to those issues about which respondents were asked to agree or disagree with proposals. It should also be noted that, where this was the case, respondents were not asked specifically to tick a box to indicate their agreement, and this information was generally provided as part of the qualitative discussion.

1.23 In providing their responses, some respondents identified specifically whether or not they agreed with proposals. In other cases, this was clear from the comments made, or could be inferred from other information provided (although this was less definitive). Restricting the assessment of the level of agreement only to those doing so explicitly would have meant that a significant amount of data would have been lost, and a potentially misleading picture presented.

1.24 It is also important to bear in mind that the main focus overall is upon qualitative analysis and presentation, reflecting the methodology and the nature of the responses. It is less appropriate to focus on quantitative material for a number of reasons, including that:

• Not all of the respondents addressed the questions specifically, nor did they all do so using the form.
• Respondents covered similar issues at different points on the response form.
• The process of entering information to the database sometimes required subjective judgement about the appropriate location of a response, making it impossible to count responses accurately by theme.
• Some responses were submitted on behalf of organisations and represented the views of a number of respondents. It would be impossible to identify the actual number of individuals represented by a response.
• The consultation process involved "opting in" and cannot be seen to be representative.
• The purpose of a consultation such as this is to identify contributions to the debate, rather than to determine the "weight" of views.

1.25 It should also be noted that it is clearly impossible for the report to include all of the individual points which were made. It is not intended that the report should be a compendium of points, but that it should provide a detailed overview of the issues which emerged, reflecting the range and depth of views, and identifying the themes. Most of the full responses are available to be inspected on the Scottish Government website, as are examples of the campaign responses, ⁹ and the themes provide a broad indication of respondents' views. A small number did not agree to their response being made available to the public, and these are not posted on the website. Some requested that particular details (such as their name or address) be withheld, and this has also been done on the website.

1.26 Where there was found to be variation in views by type of respondent, this has been identified in the report. In many cases, however, the detailed views expressed in relation to particular issues did not follow clear patterns by respondent type, with differences of view evident within, as well as between different categories. Where there were no clear patterns which could be identified, it should be noted that there is generally no reference made to different types of respondent in the text.

1.27 The discussions at the events covered many of the issues which were explored in the consultation document, and the views expressed at those events are reflected in this report wherever relevant. The discussions were often wide-ranging, and it was common for different views of an issue to be reflected within individual events, and within the workshop discussions at these events. As well as providing detailed views which have been included in the report, the events illustrated the complexity of the issues, and the range and nuances of opinion in each of the areas explored ¹⁰.

1.28 It was clear to respondents that their comments would form the basis of the report and the wording used within the report sometimes follows the wording in a response in order to preserve the sense and richness of the response (even though it is not presented as a "quote"). The language which is used is sometimes emotive, to illustrate the points made and reflect respondents' intended messages. Where respondents requested that their material remain confidential, the information has been analysed as part of the report and the comments included, but there is no identification of the respondent who made the comments, nor material presented that would identify them.

The way forward

1.29 The material which has been summarised in this report gives a good indication of the range and depth of views expressed on the Scottish Climate Change Bill. Following the preparation of the report, Ministers will consider the findings and identify the appropriate way of taking the issues raised forward. The remainder of the report presents the findings.

1.30 The material is presented in the following sections:

• Section 2 covers issues relating to targets (questions 1-7 in Section 5 of the consultation document.
• Section 3 covers issues relating to the supporting framework (questions 8-12 in Section 6 of the consultation document).
• Section 4 covers issues relating to the reporting and scrutiny framework (questions 13-22 in Section 7 of the consultation document).
• Section 5 covers issues relating to supporting measures (questions 23-33 in Section 8 of the consultation document).
• Section 6 covers additional points of a more general nature or which did not link readily to a consultation question, along with some common overarching themes.
• Annex 1 summarises the written consultation questions.
• Annex 2 provides details of the issues covered in the consultation events.
• Annex 3 summarises the issues raised in the campaign responses.
• Annex 4 provides a glossary of terms and abbreviations.

« Previous | Contents | Next »