Consultation on proposals for the introduction of the role of an Independent National (Whistleblowing) Officer for NHSScotland Staff

Section 8: Responding to this consultation

Scottish Government consultation process

Consultation is an essential part the policy making process. It gives us the opportunity to get your opinion and expertise on a proposed area of work.

You can find all our forthcoming, open and closed consultations online: http:consult.scotland.gov.uk. Each consultation details the issues under consideration, as well as a way for you to give us your views, either online, by email or by post.

Consultations may involve seeking views in a number of different ways, such as public meetings, focus groups, or other online methods such as Dialogue (http://ideas.scotland.gov.uk)

After a consultation is closed we publish all responses where we have been given permission to do so.

Responses will be analysed and used as part of the decision making process, along with a range of other available information and evidence. We will publish a report of this analysis for every consultation. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise 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
• be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented

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

Responding to this Consultation

We are inviting responses to this consultation by Wednesday 10 February 2016.

Please respond to this consultation online at https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/health-workforce/independent-national-whistleblowing-officer.

You can save and return to your response while the consultation is still open. Please ensure that consultation responses are submitted before the close date.

If you are unable to respond online, please complete the Respondent Information Form (see "Handling your Response" below) and return it with your response to:

Robyn McCormack, Workforce Practice Unit, Scottish Government, St Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG.

Handling your response

If you respond using Citizen Space, you will be automatically directed to the Respondent Information Form at the start of the questionnaire. This will let us know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public.

If you are unable to respond via Citizen Space, please complete and return the Respondent Information Form attached at the end of this document as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. 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.

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 available to the public at http:consult.scotland.gov.uk. If you use Citizen Space to respond, you will receive a copy of your response via email.

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us.

Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to Anna Gilbert at Anna.Gilbert@gov.scot.