Consultation on the Draft Scottish Climate Change Adaption Programme: Analysis of Responses

1 Introduction and Background

1.1 This report presents findings from a public consultation on the draft Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme (hereafter referred to as "the Programme"). Background

1.2 Section 56 of the Climate Change Act 2008 requires the UK Government to publish five-yearly assessments of risk to the UK. The first UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) was published in January 2012 and included a Climate Change Risk Assessment for Scotland.

1.3 Following these assessments, the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 places a statutory duty on Scottish Ministers to lay a programme before the Scottish Parliament, setting out their adaptation objectives and their policies and proposals to meet those objectives.

1.4 To date, the Scottish Government's efforts in relation to adaptation have been guided by Scotland's Climate Change Adaptation Framework, published in 2009. Following the publication of the UK CCRA, a draft Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme has been developed in partnership with stakeholders, using the CCRA as the basis, and taking into account the progress made in Scotland over the past few years through the Framework. The Framework will be replaced by the statutory Adaptation Programme when published in final form.

1.5 As required by legislation, the Programme sets out the Scottish Government's objectives, policies and proposals for increasing Scotland's resilience in managing the serious impacts of a changing climate. The Programme is structured around an overarching aim and three themes - (i) Climate Ready Natural Environment (N theme); (ii) Climate Ready Buildings and Infrastructure Networks (B theme); and (iii) Climate Ready Society (S theme). Each of the themes has an outcome that the Programme is seeking to deliver in the long term (up to 2050), and within each theme there are three objectives, each with policies and proposals that provide the focus for the lifetime of the Programme in order to progress towards the long term objective. Altogether there are 124 policies and proposals included in the Programme.

The consultation process

1.6 Around 600 individuals / organisations were invited to take part in the consultation. The consultation ran for three months from 28^th June to 27^th September 2013. The public consultation was open for anyone to comment, including stakeholders, and public bodies in Scotland who will have a statutory duty to help deliver the Programme when published.

1.7 The consultation invited views on the Scottish Government's draft Programme, as required by section 53 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. It also sought views on the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), which identifies the environmental considerations that have informed the development of the Programme.

Methods

1.8 The consultation questionnaire included a combination of closed questions, where respondents were asked to tick a box, and open questions, where respondents were invited to provide further comments. The closed questions largely took a similar form where respondents were asked to indicate their level or support for a particular issue. For example, Question 1a asked: "To what extent does the overarching framework of the Programme set an appropriate long term direction for climate change adaptation in Scotland?" Respondents were then asked to indicate their level of support by ticking either "Fully", "Mostly", "Partially" or "Poorly".

1.9 If respondents did not tick the box for a particular question, but then went on to provide comments on the question, no attempt was made to impute their response to the closed question on the basis of their comments. This is because the comments made by respondents who ticked "Fully" or "Mostly" were often very similar to those made by respondents who ticked "Partially" or "Poorly".

1.10 Following data entry, quantitative and qualitative analysis were carried out on the responses on a question-by-question basis.

1.11 Quantitative analysis aimed to determine the number and types of respondents who answered each question. Given the relatively small numbers of respondents to each question in the consultation, it is not possible to identify any clear differences in views between different types of respondents. Rather, respondents from different sectors often made the same or similar points. In addition, as noted above, the similar points were often made irrespective of whether respondents had expressed satisfaction or dissatisfaction with certain aspects of the Programme (in their responses to the tick-box questions).

1.12 Thus, the findings of the quantitative analysis should be treated with caution. The main value of the analysis is in relation to the qualitative findings which identify key issues for development within the Programme.

1.13 The aims of the qualitative analysis were to identify the range of issues raised by respondents in their comments. However, this consultation received responses from a relatively small number of experts in the field. Individual responses often raised significant and detailed points which were not made by any other respondent. Thus, it has not been possible to adequately reflect in this report the full range of issues raised in the responses. However, each response will be read by the Scottish Government to inform any revisions to the Programme.

1.14 This report has sought to summarise the key issues identified in the consultation. The key issues were those raised by a range of respondents, and where there was largely agreement among respondents about how the Programme should be developed.