One Scotland: consultation on current hate crime legislation

Part Six - Responding to this Consultation

1. Please respond to this consultation by 24 February 2019.

2. You can view and respond to this consultation online at: https://consult.gov.scot/hate-crime/consultation-on-scottish-hate-crime-legislation

3. You can save and return your responses while the consultation is still open. Please ensure that consultation responses are submitted before the closing date of 24 February 2019.

4. If you are unable to respond online, please complete the Respondent Information Form at Annex B (see ‘Handling your Response’ below) and send with your completed questionnaire to:

Or by email to connectedcommunities@gov.scot.

5. Questions are raised throughout the consultation but they can all be found and answered in the questionnaire at Annex B to this consultation paper.

Handling your Response

6. If you respond online using the Scottish Government’s consultation platform, Citizen Space (http://consult.scotland.gov.uk), you will be directed to the Respondent Information Form. Please indicate how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be published.

7. If you are unable to respond through Citizen Space, please complete and return the Respondent Information Form which is also included in Annex B to this document. If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

8. 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

9. 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.

10. If you used Citizen Space to respond, you will receive a copy of your response via email.

11. 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.

Comments and Complaints

12. If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them by email to connectedcommunities@gov.scot.

Scottish Government Consultation Process

13. Consultation is an essential part of the policy-making 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.scotland.gov.uk.

14. 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 within three months of the closing date of the consultation.

15. The consultation is also available in Easy Read and BSL. Alternative versions can be obtained by emailing connectedcommunities@gov.scot or writing to Hate Crime Legislation Team at the address in paragraph 3 above.