Cattle identification and traceability: consultation

Responding to this consultation paper

Please respond to this consultation using the Scottish Government’s consultation hub: “Citizen Space”. You can access and respond to this consultation online.

You can save and return to your response while the consultation remains open. Please ensure that your consultation response is submitted via Citizen Space before the closing date of 27 June 2024.

If you are unable to submit your response through our consultation hub, then please submit it along with a completed Respondent Information Form (which has been published alongside this consultation paper) to:

Please do try to reply using the Citizen Space hub as it makes administration of consultations considerably easier.

Please try to answer all the questions; however, if you are unable to answer any particular question then please feel free to move on to the next. Please note that you will be asked to explain the reasons for your answer as appropriate in the space provided in the questionnaire on Citizen Space.

When answering the consultation questions, we ask that you take into consideration the information provided in this document alongside your own relevant knowledge or personal experience. All opinions are welcome.

Handling your response

If you respond using Citizen Space, you will be directed to the ‘About You’ page before submitting your response. Please indicate on the Respondent Information Form how you wish your response to be handled and whether you are happy for your response to published. If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

To find out how we handle your personal data, please see our privacy policy.

Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, and after we have checked that they contain no potentially defamatory material, responses will be made publicly available at online. If you use Citizen Space to respond, you will receive a copy of your response via email.

When the consultation closes, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us decide on whether to progress our proposals. Responses will be published where permission to do so has been given. A consultation summary report will also be published that will include an anonymised analysis of the responses received and set out the next steps.

Scottish Government consultation process

Consultation is an essential part of the policy making process. It gives you the opportunity to have your say on what we do or propose to do, and it gives us valuable insight, perspective, and evidence that in turn informs and shapes what we do.

All Scottish Government consultations are available online.

Consultation responses received are analysed and used as part of the decision-making process, along with a range of other available information and evidence. We publish a report for every consultation we undertake. Depending on the nature of the consultation undertaken, the responses received may:

• indicate the need for policy development or review,
• inform the development of a particular policy,
• help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals, and
• be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented.

While the details of individual circumstances described in a response to a consultation may usefully inform the policy process, public consultations cannot address individual concerns and comments, which should be directed to the relevant body as appropriate.