Evaluation of the Compliance and Quality of Biodiversity Duty Reports 2015

Annex 3: Internet based survey

The questions for the internet survey are provided below. Note that survey logic was used to ensure that public bodies were only presented with questions relevant to their situation.

Survey

In 2004, the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act placed a duty on public sector bodies in Scotland to further the conservation of biodiversity with the proper exercise of their functions. This duty aimed to connect people with the environment and to manage biodiversity in the wider environment, not just in protected sites.

The Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 ( WANE Act) came into force in January 2012. The WANE Act requires public bodies to report on their compliance with their biodiversity duty every three years.

This survey is part of a study commissioned by the Scottish Government to evaluate biodiversity duty reporting. We are interested in whether your organisation has published a report, your opinions on the reporting process, and any suggestions you may have to improve it. We will use the survey responses to evaluate the previous round of reporting and to identify changes that may be needed to help organisations meet their reporting duty. The results will feed into our final report.

All answers will be kept anonymous.

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey.

If you have any queries or any other comments, please contact Jenny Miller [email].

All organisations

1. Please select your organisation type:

• Advisory national non-departmental public body ( NDPB)
• Commissioner/ombudsman
• Executive agency
• Executive national non-departmental public body ( NDPB)
• Health body
• Local authority
• Non-ministerial department
• Other significant national body
• Public corporation
• Tribunal
• Other (please describe type)

2. Please indicate your organisation's size:

• Micro (less than 10 staff members)
• Small (10 to 49 staff members)
• Medium (50 to 249 staff members)
• Large (250 or more staff members)

3. Has your organisation completed a biodiversity duty report?

• Yes [GO TO Q4]
• No [GO TO Q14]
• Don't know (GO TO Q14)

Organisations that have answered Yes to question 1

4. Is the report standalone or embedded in another report?

• Standalone
• Embedded in another report.
• If your biodiversity duty report is embedded in another report please provide the name of the report

5. Is your report publically available online?

• Yes
• No
• Don't know

Please provide a link to your report

6. We are interested in finding out whether organisations produced and published their own reports, or sought the assistance of another organisation. Please select two of the following statements:

• We wrote the report
• We published the report
• We instructed another organisation to write the report
• We instructed another organisation to publish the report

7. Are you aware of the template to assist public bodies with their biodiversity reporting duty?

• Yes [GO TO Q8]
• No [GO TO Q13]

8. Was the biodiversity duty guidance/template used in the production of your report?

• Yes - we/our contractor followed the template
• Partially - we/our contractor modified the template to produce our report
• No - we/our contractor did not use the template
• Don't know

9. Do you think that the template needs to be modified?

• Yes [GO TO Q10]
• No [GO TO Q13]
• Do not know [GO TO Q13]

10. What sections do you think need to be revised in the template? (Select all that apply)

• Section 1 - Introductory information about your organisation and biodiversity
• Section 2 - Action taken to improve biodiversity conservation on the ground
• Section 3 - Mainstreaming
• Section 4 - Monitoring
• Section 5 - Partnership working and Biodiversity Communications
• Section 6 - Biodiversity Highlights of the Past Year

Please specify how you would like each chosen section to change (to help our analysis, please state the name of the section and then the change)

11. Are there any additional sections you would like to see added to the template?

• Yes
• No

If yes, please provide further details

12. Do you think there needs to be any other changes to the template? (e.g. more detail, example text, more signposting to information)

• Yes
• No

If yes, please provide further details

13. Beyond the production of the template, are there any other actions (e.g. setting up an online forum for sharing of best practice) that the Scottish Government could take to assist you with biodiversity duty reporting?

• Yes [GO TO "ANY OTHER COMMENTS"]
• No [GO TO "ANY OTHER COMMENTS"]

If yes, please provide further details

Organisations that have answered No to question 1

14. Are you aware of the requirement to report on your organisation's compliance with the biodiversity duty every three years?

• Yes
• No

15. What were the main reasons for not reporting?

Select all that are applicable:

• Not aware of the need for the report
• Lack of resources (staff, etc.)
• Lack of time to prepare the report
• Budget constraints
• Lack of expertise/no designated biodiversity officer
• No biodiversity actions to report on
• Already produce a report that is similar
• Other priorities took precedence
• Other
• Comment box for further details

16. Are you aware of the template to assist public bodies with their biodiversity reporting duty?

• Yes [GO TO Q17]
• No [GO TO Q21]

17. Do you think that the template needs to be modified?

• Yes [GO TO Q18]
• No [GO TO Q21]
• Don't know [GO TO Q21]

18. What sections do you think need to be revised in the template? (Select all that apply)

• Section 1 - Introductory information about your organisation and biodiversity
• Section 2 - Action taken to improve biodiversity conservation on the ground
• Section 3 - Mainstreaming
• Section 4 - Monitoring
• Section 5 - Partnership working and Biodiversity Communications
• Section 6 - Biodiversity Highlights of the Past Year

Please specify how you would like each chosen section to change (to help our analysis, please state the name of the section and then the change)

19. Are there any additional sections you would like to see added?

• Yes
• No

If yes, please provide further details

20. Do you think there needs to be any other changes to the template? (e.g. more detail, example text, more signposting to information)

• Yes
• No

If yes, please provide further details

21. Beyond the production of the template, are there any other actions (e.g. setting up an online forum for sharing of best practice) that the Scottish Government could take to assist you with biodiversity duty reporting?

• Yes
• No

If yes, please provide further details

All organisations

Any other comments:

Please provide the name of your organisation (your name will only be used for analysis purposes. All responses will be kept anonymous)

Would you be willing for us to contact you to further discuss biodiversity duty reporting?

• Yes
• No

Please provide your contact details

• Name:
• Email:
• Phone:

Thank you for completing this survey. Your responses will be kept anonymous.