Scottish Government

ANNEX F

ARRANGEMENTS FOR CONSULTATION

This consultation is being issued to a wide range of stakeholders (set out in Annex E). Anyone that has an interest in the issues raised in this paper is encouraged to respond and we ask that respondents complete all sections of the consultation that they consider relevant.

Responding to this Consultation Paper

We are inviting written responses to this consultation by 30 April 2009. Please send your response to:

Supporting a Smarter Scotland ( CON 1115),

Or by email to:

hestudentsupportconsultation@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

If you have any queries regarding this consultation please contact Anna Devlin on 0141 242 0194.

We would be grateful if you would clearly indicate on your response which questions or part of the consultation paper you are responding to as this will aid our analysis of the responses received. To assist this, a list of all the questions in the document is provided at Annex I.

This consultation, and all other Scottish Government consultations, can be viewed on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations. You can 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 ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Consultations/seConsult). This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). SEConsult compliments, but in no way replaces the 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 most of interest. We would encourage you to register.

Alternative Formats

The text to this consultation paper will be made available in alternative formats. Anyone requiring the document in an alternative format should contact Anna Devlin at hestudentsupportconsultation@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or the address below.

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 of this paper as this will ensure that we will treat your response appropriately. If you ask your response not to be published, we will regard as confidential and will treat accordingly.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.

Next Steps in the Process

Where respondents have given their permission for their responses to be made public ( see the enclosed Respondent Information Form), these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Government Library by 28 May 2009 and on the Scottish Government consultation web pages by 28 May 2009. We will check all responses where agreement to publish has been given for 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 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 reach a decision on the matters discussed. We aim to issue a report on this consultation by the end of September 2009.

Comments and Complaints

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

Anna Devlin