Consultation on regulations and statutory guidance under the Welfare Funds (Scotland) Act 2015: 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 main consultation received 61 responses – 53 from organisations and 8 from individuals. (See Table 2.1.)

Table 2.1: Number of respondents

2.3 In addition, two responses were received to the Easy Read consultation. One of these was submitted by an organisation and one by an individual. The individual respondent answered all 12 questions in the Easy Read questionnaire; the organisational respondent answered only four of the questions.^[1]

2.4 Most (53) of the responses to the main consultation were submitted through the online response form. However, eight responses were sent by email. Five of these included comments that were relevant to the consultation, but did not directly address the consultation questions. The responses to the Easy Read consultation were submitted by email and post.

2.5 Not all respondents answered all questions in the consultation, and it was also sometimes the case that respondents submitted comments in response to certain questions, but did not answer the associated ‘yes / no’ questions. Full details of the numbers responding to individual questions in the main consultation are shown at Annex 1.

The respondents

2.6 Table 2.2 below provides a breakdown of the number and type of organisational respondents who took part in the main consultation.

Table 2.2: Organisational respondents

2.7 Organisational respondents included third sector / equality organisations; local government organisations (17 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities submitted responses); and housing organisations. ‘Other’ organisational respondents included academic, NHS and legal organisations and professional associations. The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO), who will have a statutory role under the 2015 Act, also submitted a response. A complete list of organisational respondents is included at Annex 2.