Consultation Hub response statistics since 2015: FOI release

Information requested

For each year that the consultation hub (http://consult.scotland.gov.uk) has been operating since October 2015, please provide:

1. The average length of time taken from the closure of a consultation to the publication of responses.

2. The average length of time taken from the closure of a consultation to the publication of a report.

3. The longest time taken for the publication of responses in a single consultation.

4. The name of the consultation with the most responses and the number of responses that consultation received.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested:

4. The name of the consultation with the most responses and the number of responses that consultation received.
The consultation that received the most responses since 2015 was Talking 'Fracking': A Consultation on Unconventional Oil and Gas' (2017) which received 60,535 responses (a breakdown of response types are set out below):

• 8,425 substantive responses (14%) – responses drafted by respondents using their own words, and non-standard campaign responses
• 21,077 standard campaign responses (35%)
• 31,033 petition signatories (including 8,375 comments) (51%)

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below:

1. The average length of time taken from the closure of a consultation to the publication of responses.

3. The longest time taken for the publication of responses in a single consultation.
The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because the system we use to publish responses, Citizen Space (a licensed product from a company called Delib), does not record the date when responses were published.

2. The average length of time taken from the closure of a consultation to the publication of a report.
The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because we do not record these timeframes.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

Dates of the closure of a consultation and the publication of the analysis report can be found on https://consult.gov.scot and https://www.gov.scot which you may find helpful in relation to question 2.

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.