Heat and energy efficiency strategies: second consultation analysis

Introduction

Background

56. In January 2017, the Scottish Government held a scoping consultation on Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES) and Regulation of District Heating, designed to gather views to help inform further development of the proposals prior to more detailed consultation.

57. In November 2017, the Scottish Government launched a second consultation, based on the evidence and views gathered from stakeholders. This consultation document set out more specific policy proposals for Local Heat & Energy Efficiency Strategies and regulation of district and communal heating. It ran from November 2017 until February 2018.

Respondent Profile

58. There were 71 responses to the consultation: 68 from organisations and three from individuals. Respondents were assigned to respondent groupings in order to enable analysis of any differences or commonalities across or within the different types of organisations and individuals that responded.

59. A list of all those organisations that submitted a response to the consultation is included in Appendix 1. The local government category includes local authorities, local authority officer responses and related bodies such as the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA). The business & industry group includes consultants, the power sector and house builders. The network, professional and trade body group includes trade bodies representing heavy industry.

60. The organisation categories with the highest numbers of respondents were ‘business & industry’, ‘local government’ and ‘network, professional or trade body’.

61. The following table shows the numbers of responses in each analysis group.

Respondent Groups

Methodology

62. Responses to the consultation were submitted using the Scottish Government consultation platform Citizen Space or by email.

63. It should be borne in mind that the number responding at each question is not always the same as the number presented in the respondent table. This is because not all respondents addressed all questions; some commented only on those areas of relevance to their organisation, sector or field of interest. The report shows the number of respondents who replied to each question.

64. When referring to respondents who made particular comments, the terms ‘a small number’, ‘a few’ and so on have been used. While the analysis was qualitative in nature, as the questionnaire only contained a small number of quantifiable questions, as a very general rule of thumb it can be assumed that: ‘a very small number’ indicates around 3 or 4 or less respondents, ‘a small number’ indicates around 5-8 respondents; ‘a few indicates around 8 to 10; and ‘some’ indicates over 10 but fewer than half of those who commented at any question.

65. The researchers examined all comments made by respondents at each open question and noted the range of issues mentioned in responses including reasons for opinions, specific examples or explanations, alternative suggestions or other related comments. Grouping these issues together into similar themes allowed the researchers to identify whether any particular theme was specific to any particular respondent group or groups. When looking at group differences however, it must be also borne in mind that where a specific opinion has been identified in relation to a particular group or groups, this does not indicate that other groups did not share this opinion, but rather that they simply did not comment on that particular point.

66. While the consultation gave all who wished to comment an opportunity to do so, given the self-selecting nature of this type of exercise, any figures quoted here cannot be extrapolated to a wider population outwith the respondent sample.

67. A small number of verbatim comments, from those who gave permission for their responses to be made public, have been used in the report to illustrate themes or to provide extra detail for some specific points.