Sandeel fishing: consultation

Annex A - Consultation period and responses to the consultation

We are inviting responses to this consultation by 13 October 2023.

Please respond to this consultation using the Scottish Government's consultation hub, Citizen Space (http://consult.gov.scot). Access and respond to this consultation online at https://consult.gov.scot/marine-scotland/consultation-on-proposals-to-close-fishing/. 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 13 October 2023.

If you are unable to respond using our consultation hub, please complete the Respondent Information Form and return by email to: sandeelconsultation@gov.scot.

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 If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.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, please complete and return the Respondent Information Form included in this document.

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

https://www.gov.scot/privacy/

Next steps in the process

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.

Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted,

please send them to sandeelconsultation@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 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.

Privacy policy

Our contact details

The Scottish Government is the data controller for the personal information we process. Personal data in relation to this consultation will be processed by the Marine Directorate.

Scottish Government
St. Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh EH1 3DG

Email: sandeelconsultation@gov.scot

The type of personal information we collect, and how and why we collect this information

Through this consultation, we will collect and process the following information provided in responses submitted both through Citizen Space and Respondent Information Forms:

• Personal identifiers, contacts and characteristics (name and email address).
• Any additional personal data included in the free text response.

An email address is a required field as part of any response submitted through Citizen Space or a Respondent Information Form. The collection of an email address within the response allows a confirmation of the consultation response to be sent, and will allow you access your response and change your answers whilst the consultation period is underway.

Following the close of the consultation, an outcome report will be published online. Responses will be published alongside this, in accordance with respondents' expressed publication preferences. Before publication of responses, they will be checked for any personal data included in the free-text response to the consultation question, and any personally identifiable information will be removed.

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be published, with or without their name, and after the Scottish Government has redacted any defamatory content, consultation responses will be published at http://consult.gov.scot.

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information is that we need it to perform a public task.

How we store your personal information

Your information will be securely stored, and retained in line with the Scottish Government retention policy. A review will be carried out after 1 year to decide whether data is still required to be retained, in order to evidence and/or inform policy decisions relating to the consultation. If there is no rationale to justify continuing to hold the data it will be destroyed. If data continues to be held, reviews will be held annually.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.

Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing - You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Please contact us at dpa@gov.scot if you wish to make a request.

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at The Scottish Government DPO.

The DPO's address:

Data Protection Officer
Victoria Quay
Commercial Street
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ

Email: DataProtectionOfficer@gov.scot

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO's address:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and The Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under these Acts for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise. In the event of a request for information under these Acts, personal details would be redacted.

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to the same address as for your response.