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Modernising Public Local Inquiries: A Consultation Paper

Dear Consultee

MODERNISING PUBLIC LOCAL INQUIRIES
PUBLIC CONSULTATION

I enclose a consultation paper on the above subject and invite your comments on the questions raised. The paper looks at the scope for modernising the planning inquiry process and at opportunities for better practice. A short guide to the consultation paper is also enclosed.

Some responses to an earlier consultation, Getting Involved in Planning, indicated that there was scope for making the public local inquiry process more user friendly. Through this consultation paper, we now wish to invite views on options for improving the experience of inquiry participants. The paper seeks to increase certainty about the operation of the inquiry process while ensuring that it remains impartial, fair and transparent.

Responding to this consultation paper

We are inviting written responses to this consultation paper by 28 November 2003.

Please send your response to:

modernising.plis@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or Richard West

Modernising Public Local Inquiries
Scottish Executive Development Department
Area 2-H33
Victoria Quay
Leith
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ
If you have any queries contact Richard West on 0131 244 7060.

We would be grateful if you could clearly indicate in your response the numbers of the specific questions, or parts of the consultation paper, to which you are responding. This will aid our analysis of the responses received.

I also enclose a note about the Executive’s consultation processes which includes a Respondee Information Form. This form allows you to indicate how you wish your consultation response to be handled. Please return your completed form along with your response to the consultation.

Access to consultation responses

We will make all responses available to the public in the Scottish Executive Library 21 days after the closing date of the consultation unless confidentiality is requested. In addition, we will later publish an analysis of responses on the Scottish Executive website. All responses not marked confidential will be checked for any potentially defamatory material before being logged in the library or placed on the website.

All responses will be acknowledged.

Yours faithfully

MAUREEN McGINN

RESPONDEE INFORMATION FORM

The Scottish Executive Consultation Process

Consultation is an essential and important aspect of Scottish Executive working methods. Given the wide-ranging areas of work of the Scottish Executive, there are many varied types of consultation. However, in general Scottish Executive 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.

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. Consultation exercises may involve seeking views in a number of different ways, such as public meetings, focus groups or questionnaire exercises.

Typically, Scottish Executive 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 area of consultation, and they are also placed on the Scottish Executive web site enabling a wider audience to access the paper and submit their responses. Copies of all the responses received to consultation exercises (except those where the individual or organisation requested confidentiality) are placed in the Scottish Executive library at Saughton House, Edinburgh (K Spur, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XD, telephone 0131 244 4552).

The views and suggestions detailed in consultation responses are analysed and used as part of the decision making process. 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

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

Andy Kinnaird
Scottish Executive Development Department
Planning Division
Victoria Quay
Leith
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ
E-mail: Andy.Kinnaird@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

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