Democracy matters phase 2 consultation - local governance review

Responding to this Consultation

We are inviting responses to this consultation by 28 February 2024.

Please respond to this consultation using the the Scottish Government's consultation hub Citizen Space You can save and return to your responses while the consultation is still open. Please ensure that consultation responses are submitted before the closing date of 28 February 2024.

If you are unable to respond using our consultation hub, please complete the Respondent Information Form at the end of this document and send it along with your response to democracymatters@gov.scot or:

Community Empowerment, Reform and Governance Division

Scottish Government
Area 3F North
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ

Handling Your Response

You are asked to provide your name, address, phone number and e-mail address for the purposes of identifying who has provided which response and to enable them to be contacted should there be a query about how they want their response to be handled. This is not a statutory requirement. This data will be archived or deleted once the guidance is finalised.

You have the right to request access to the data, and that the data is up to date, that it is deleted, that its processing may be restricted, or to object to the processing of data. You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Scottish Information Commissioner.

You are strongly encouraged not to include information that relates to you as part of your response. If you feel you must include such information you are strongly advised to select 'Do not publish response' as part of the Respondent Information Form or on the About You page of the consultation hub.

If you respond using the consultation hub, you will be directed to the About You page before submitting your response. Please indicate how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are content for your response to be 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 If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.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.

If you are unable to respond via Citizen Space, please complete and return the Respondent Information Form included in this document, along with your response.

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

Next Steps

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 on the Scottish Government's consultation hub, Citizen Space. If you use the consultation hub 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 finalise the guidance and impact assessments. Responses will be published where we have been given permission to do so. An analysis report will also be made available.

Comments and Complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to the contact address above or at democracymatters@gov.scot

Scottish Government Consultation Process

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

You can find all our consultations on the Scottish Government's consultation hub, Citizen Space. 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.