A Human Rights Bill for Scotland: consultation

How to respond

We are inviting responses to this consultation by Thursday 5 October 2023.

Some sections of this consultation may be more relevant to particular individuals than others. Therefore, you may wish to only answer the questions or sections you find most relevant.

We encourage you to submit a response, regardless of how many questions you would like to answer.

Please respond to this consultation using 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 Thursday 5 October 2023.

If you are unable to respond online, please complete the Respondent Information Form which can be found on Citizen Space and send with your completed questionnaire to:

Human Rights Strategy & Legislation Unit

Directorate for Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights

Scottish Government

Area 3H North

Victoria Quay

Edinburgh EH6 6QQ

Or by email to

HumanRightsOffice@gov.scot

Please note that you are welcome to submit a response in the form of a Word document, BSL video or audio clip.

Accessible and alternative versions

We have produced accessible and alternative versions of the consultation, including Easy Read, audio, large print and Gaelic translation versions. These versions are available on the Human Rights Bill consultation page. If you require an additional, alternative version please email us your request at HumanRightsOffice@gov.scot.

There is a glossary of legal and human rights terms available on CitizenSpace.

Handling your response

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 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 If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.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, information about other ways to respond is available at the Scottish Government's Human Rights Policy web page (https://www.gov.scot/policies/human-rights/).

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

Privacy –gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

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.gov.scot. 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. Responses will be published where we have been given permission to do so. An analysis report will also be made available.

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 online: http://consult.gov.scot. 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.

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.

If something goes wrong or you are dissatisfied with our service, please tell us. We will work with you to resolve it.

For information on how to make a complaint please visit
Make a complaint –gov.scot (www.gov.scot)