Publication - FOI/EIR release

Information relating to consultation proposals for short-term lets: FOI release

Published: 17 February 2021
Topic: Housing, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202000108946
Date received: 8 November 2020
Date responded: 8 December 2020

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

Information requested

Information relating to online workshops and stakeholder organised events held to discuss the consultation proposals for short-term lets: Consultation on a licensing scheme and planning control areas in Scotland:

How many workshops and stakeholder organised events have been held to date (9/11/2020), when they took place and how many more have been planned.
A full list of representatives who were invited, including the full name and titles of each attendee and the organisation they represent (and the same for those who will be invited to future workshops) for both online workshops and stakeholder organised events.
Any written correspondence within the consultation team (letters, emails or briefs) which discusses the basis on which people were invited to online workshops or stakeholder organised events
Meeting minutes from all online workshops and stakeholder organised events held to date, as well as any accompanying briefing notes and papers.
Materials that were handed out and received during these online workshops and stakeholder organised events, such as presentation slides, brochures, reports and leaflets

Response

The answers to your specific questions are:

1. The Scottish Government engaged with a range of stakeholders through 20 virtual workshops in support of the recent short-term lets consultation. Workshops took place from 16 September to 9 October, inclusive. No further workshops are planned at present. Workshops were timed to coincide with the consultation, which ran from 14 September to 16 October.

2. The Scottish Government will shortly be publishing a consultation report which provides details on the dates each workshop was held, and the names of each organisation that attended. This information will be in Annex B of the consultation report. We do not have the consent of the individualswho attended each workshop to share their names.

3. Attendees representing a wide range of stakeholder groups and interests (actors) were invited to the online workshops. Those contacted included respondents to our 2019 consultation where permission had been given to contact them. I have provided a list of actors below:

accrediting organisation

channel manager

holiday letting agency (or
PRS)

host

hosting intermediary

information provider

neighbour (resident)

local authority

platform

"regulator"

wider tourism and trade
association

A definition of each actor can be found in paragraph 2.2 of Short-term lets: Consultation on a licensing scheme and planning control areas in Scotland. Neighbours included a representative mix of urban and rural residents. We also worked to accommodate requests from others who contacted us during the consultation period expressing a desire to attend workshops.

4. Meeting minutes were not taken at the online workshops. It may help if I explain that the purpose of consultation was to help the Scottish Government ensure that legislation laid at the Scottish Parliament in December is as efficient and effective as possible. We were not consulting on whether to implement a licensing scheme or control areas nor the broad framework of the approach. For this reason, we used these workshops to focus on identifying issues and solutions only. Issues and solutions captured during the workshops, and in written responses to our consultation, have been summarised alongside the action we have taken in light of the suggestions in our consultation report.

5. No materials were handed out during any of the online workshops. We issued three fact sheets ahead of one of the workshops. I have attached copies of each factsheet.

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION
An exemption applies
An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA (information intended for future publication) applies to a small amount of the information requested. This exemption applies because we intend to publish the information within 12 weeks of the date of your request. The Scottish Government will shortly be publishing a consultation report which contains this information.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.