Consultation on Police Powers to Search Children and Young People for Alcohol: Analysis of Responses

2 About the respondents

2.1 This section provides information about the respondents to the consultation.

Number of responses received

2.2 The consultation received 134 submissions. However, two responses were removed - one duplicate response (sent by email and also submitted via the online response facility), and one email message which did not constitute a response were both excluded. In addition two respondents had submitted multiple different responses - these were combined into two single responses. Thus, the analysis presented in this report is based on a total of 130 responses.

2.3 Two-thirds of the responses (67%; 87 out of 130 responses), were from individuals, while the remaining third (33%; 43 responses) were submitted by organisations. This included 11 responses from organisations which took the form of reports of consultation activities carried out with children and young people. These responses give the views of the children and young people who participated in the consultation activities rather than of the organisation facilitating the activity and submitting the response. As such, these responses are shown separately in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1: Number of responses

2.4 Most responses (66%; 86 out of 130 responses) were submitted through the Scottish Government's online consultation hub. The remaining responses were submitted by email.

2.5 This consultation consisted of just four questions - three tick-box questions and one open question inviting respondents to provide any relevant views or evidence. The three tick-box questions were each answered by 88% of respondents, ^[6] while 77% of respondents provided additional comments or evidence either at Question 4 or, in the case of those submitting offline responses, alongside their responses to each of the initial closed questions. See Annex 2.

The respondents

2.6 Table 2.2 below shows that the largest group of organisational respondents were third sector bodies, accounting for almost a third (31%; 10 out of 32) of organisations. Across all sectors, organisational respondents included those with a focus on children and young people, those operating in the community safety and justice fields (this includes academic and research organisations), and those with a wider community-based remit.

Table 2.2: Organisational respondents

2.7 The 11 reports of consultation activities were all submitted by public sector bodies and third sector organisations working with children and young people in a range of different capacities.

2.8 A complete list of the organisational respondents is included at Annex 3.

Capturing the views of children and young people

2.9 The topic under consideration in this consultation is highly relevant to children and young people as any new police power will have a direct impact on them. Chapter 1 of this report provided brief details of the effort made by the Scottish Government to ensure that the views of children and young people were heard in the consultation process (see paragraphs 1.13 and 1.14). Table 2.1 above shows that 11 reports of consultation activities involving children and young people were submitted to the consultation. The views of children and young people are, however, also included in other types of response too:

• The 86 responses from private individuals include 24 completed by children / young people and submitted on their behalf by a youth worker.
• A range of organisations indicated that their responses were informed by discussion with children and young people.

2.10 The consultation questionnaire did not ask respondents to identify themselves by age, and it was not, therefore, possible to systematically identify other individual respondents who may have been children or young people.

2.11 It should be noted that the views expressed in the reports of consultation activities with children and young people are not taken into account in the quantitative analysis presented in the tables in Chapters 3 to 5 below. Not all these reports included responses to the closed questions, and those that did, did so in a range of different and not necessarily comparable ways. The views associated with children and young people are included in the qualitative analysis presented in each chapter.

Evidence submitted by respondents

2.12 A range of organisations and individuals cited existing evidence in their responses. In four cases respondents submitted published reports or articles to the consultation; in two of these cases the respondents did not provide any additional comments in response to the individual consultation questions. A list of published evidence submitted or cited in the responses received is included for reference at Annex 4.

2.13 This evidence is noted as appropriate in the report, but cannot be considered in any detail in the analysis. It will, though, be taken into account by the Scottish Government in taking forward policy in this area.