Ending the sale of energy drinks to children and young people: consultation analysis

1. Introduction

Background

1.1. This report presents the analysis of responses to the Scottish Government's consultation on Ending the sale of energy drinks to children and young people. The consultation ran from 29 October 2019 to 4 February 2020.

1.2. The aim of the consultation was to inform consideration of whether there is sufficient cause and evidence to support mandatory measures to end the sales of energy drinks to young people and, if so, what those measures should be.

Profile of respondents

1.3. In total, 119 responses were submitted, of which 81 were from individual members of the public and 38 were from groups or organisations. The majority of responses were received through the Scottish Government's Citizen Space consultation hub.

1.4. Respondents were asked to identify whether they were responding as an individual or on behalf of a group or organisation. Organisational respondents were then allocated to one of seven categories by the analysis team. A full list of organisational respondents can be found in Annex 1.

1.5. A breakdown of the number of responses received by respondent type is set out in Table 1 below.

Analysis and reporting

1.6. A small number of respondents did not make their submission on the consultation questionnaire and submitted their comments in a statement-style format. This content was analysed qualitatively under the most directly relevant consultation question.

1.7. Several respondents submitted extensive responses that can only be summarised very briefly in a report of this type. However, all responses were available in their entirety to the policy team at the Scottish Government.

1.8. The consultation paper specifically asked respondents to provide evidence to support their views. As part of the analysis process, all specific references, for example to research reports, have been collated and shared with the Scottish Government.

1.9. This report presents a question-by-question analysis of the comments made. Question 1 included both a closed and open element. Questions 2-9 were open questions.

1.10. Not all respondents answered all questions. In particular, Questions 5 and 6 were addressed only to those selling energy drinks, with eight respondents commenting at one or both of these questions. Otherwise, the proportion of all respondents commenting ranged from 81% at Question 2 to 46% at Question 4. Other than at the closed element of Question 1, the proportion of organisations answering each question was greater than for individuals.

1.11. The numbers of respondents who answered each of the open questions by respondent type are presented at Annex 2.

1.12. As with all consultation exercises, it should be remembered that respondents tend to have a particular interest in the subject area and have capacity to respond. This self-selection means that consultation responses are not representative of the views of the population as a whole.