Consultation on the review of the Stop and Search of Persons in Scotland Code of Practice for Constables: analysis of responses

3. The responses and respondents

3.1 This chapter provides information about the respondents to this consultation and the responses received.

Number of responses received and number included in analysis

3.2 This consultation received a total of 31 responses. Of these, 26 were submitted via the online consultation platform used by the Scottish Government, Citizen Space. The remaining 5 responses were received by the Stop and Search Review Team via email.

3.3 From the 31 total responses received, 21 were organisational respondents and the remaining 10 were from individual respondents.

3.4 Each of the email respondents were asked to complete a respondent information form to indicate their publishing preferences, this form contained the same questions as those contained within the questionnaire.

3.5 Out of the 5 manual respondents, 2 formatted their answers using a document version of the consultation questionnaire.

3.6 The remaining 3 manual respondents came from organisations, who submitted responses in an alternative format, via written submissions rather than the questionnaire. Due to differences in structure and format, these responses have not been included in the structured question-by-question analysis presented in Chapters 4 to 11. However, their content has been analysed separately and will be equally considered alongside questionnaire responses in informing the overall findings.

3.7 One response was excluded from the analysis as it contained offensive language and material unrelated to the consultation. It did not provide useable evidence to inform the review.

3.8 Taking account of the exclusion of one response and the three responses submitted in alternative formats, the structured analysis presented in Chapters 4 to 11 is based on 27 responses. The three alternative-format submissions are analysed separately in Chapter 12. As a result, different response totals are referred to throughout this report: 31 responses were received in total, 30 were included in the overall analysis, 27 were included in the question-by-question analysis, and 3 were analysed thematically. In addition, not all respondents answered every question and therefore response numbers may vary between questions.

3.9 Chapter 12 of this report analyses the feedback received from the 3 open text responses.

Total responses received:

Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.