Ban of plastic-stemmed cotton buds: consultation response

2. About the respondents and responses

This chapter presents information about the respondents and types of responses received by the consultation. It also describes the way in which responses were received, and provides a brief description of the campaign which encouraged and helped to facilitate the submission of responses from their members / supporters.

How responses were received

Responses to this consultation were received in two formats;

Online submission

Respondents could submit an online response by completing the response form hosted on the Scottish Government's Citizen Space consultation hub.

Submission through an organised campaign

A campaign group, Friends of the Earth, co-ordinated responses among their members and supporters. These 'campaign responses' were based on a standard text provided by the campaign organiser. They were submitted to the Scottish Government through a form on the campaign organiser's website. Completion of the online form resulted in a respondent's comments being sent by email to the Scottish Government. Respondents could simply add their name and contact details to the standard response, and then send their message. Such responses are referred to in this report as 'standard campaign responses'. Alternatively, respondents could edit the standard campaign response or add their own comments. These personalised responses, submitted via a campaign, are referred to in this report as 'non-standard campaign responses'.

Number of responses included in the analysis

Altogether, the consultation received 847 submissions. Following the removal of blank, invalid or duplicate responses, or multiple responses from a single individual, 830 responses remained, thus, the analysis was based on these 830 responses, comprised of;

570 campaign responses, (45 non-standard and 525 standard responses)
260 on-line Citizen Space responses

About the respondents

The majority of respondents were individuals, 803, (97%). The remaining 27, (3%), respondents represented organisations. The full list of organisations are listed in Annex A.

Organisations fell into three categories, the largest of which was the third sector/voluntary sector of which the majority have an environmental focus.

Third sector / Non-Governmental Organisations 70%
Public and Statutory Bodies 15%
Commercial 15%

Geographic location of respondents

The location of respondents was not requested in the online citizen-space consultation hub, however those that responded as part of the Friends of the Earth campaign provided a postal code. Of these 532 (93%) respondents were from Scotland, 33 (6%) were from other parts of the UK and 5 (1%) were from elsewhere.

Responses to individual questions

There were 830 responses to the consultation, however not all respondents answered all the consultation questions, as those following the main question regarding support of the proposal to legislate were not relevant to each respondent.

All respondents answered the first question regarding their support of the proposal to ban plastic-stemmed cotton buds. 7 respondents replied to the second question regarding any additional costs to business.