Consultation on the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 Draft Code of Conduct for Property Factors. An Analysis of Responses.

2. OVERVIEW OF RESPONSES

Introduction

2.1 This section provides an overview of the responses received to the consultation. It considers who the responses came from, who was not represented in the response, and provides general comments on the responses.

Who replied to the consultation?

2.2 The consultation was publicised to a broad range of consultees with an interest in the issues on 26 September 2011, allowing a 12 week period for written responses. Consultees included organisations providing property management services, public bodies, and professional and representative bodies.

2.3 A total of 138 consultation responses were received by the Scottish Government. Of these, 29 responses were identified as being identical and treated as campaign responses. They were therefore considered as a single response. In two cases, more than one response was identified from the same organisation. Again these were considered as single responses. For analytical purposes, this resulted in 108 responses being considered.

2.4 As Table 2.1 shows, nearly two-thirds of responses came from private individuals including two MSPs, or RSLs or their subsidiary organisations. Representative/ membership/ professional bodies included a number of organisations representing property factors in the public, voluntary and private sectors. In terms of the organisations categorised as land management companies, we are aware that two of them also provide some property related services.

2.5 Seven respondents indicated that they did not want their response to be made public, or did not provide a Respondent Information Form (RIF). The content of these responses have been considered as part of the analysis but the respondents have not been identified in this report.

Who was not represented in the responses?

2.6 Responses came from a wide cross-section of organisations and individuals with an interest in the proposals. However, the number of property factors responding was generally low. In some cases this may be as a result of a response coming from their representative organisations.

The interpretation of quantitative and qualitative information

2.7 This report is primarily based on a qualitative analysis. Whilst we undertook a quantitative analysis to identify the extent of commonality among stakeholder groups in their responses to each question, there were generally no discernible trends. We found in a number of cases respondents indicating their support or disagreement to a proposed standard making similar comments about it. For this reason we have not included a tabular analysis of the response to each question.

2.8 The main focus of the analysis has therefore been based on the qualitative content of the responses. The report focuses on the key issues respondents have raised and, where apparent, any conflicting views. Specific proposals for drafting changes have not been included in the report.