Effectiveness of environmental governance arrangements: statement

Details of the consultation that was carried out

The consultation on the report into the effectiveness of governance arrangements^[1] opened on 2 June 2023 and ran for 19 weeks until 13 October 2023.

The report was published and laid in the Parliament on 1 June 2023. The report and consultation were published on the Scottish Government Citizen Space webpage. Stakeholders were provided the opportunity to request printed versions of both the report and consultation document. Additionally, stakeholders also had the opportunity to provide written responses to the consultation via email or a physical copy sent to the Scottish Government. As part of the consultation, a supplementary briefing paper on an environmental court^[2] was published for stakeholders to consider.

Once published, information about the report and consultation document, as well as the supplementary briefing paper containing background information on environmental courts, was circulated to stakeholders from a range of sectors including local authorities, public bodies, environment, academia and third sector community organisations.

As part of the consultation, the Scottish Government held three stakeholder engagement workshops in September 2023. The workshops comprised a structured discussion of the content of the report, and provided the opportunity for stakeholders to present any considerations on wider issues of environmental governance.

Responses to the consultation

The consultation received a total of 25 responses, including 20 responses via the Scottish Government Citizen Space portal and five responses received via email. Of the 25 responses, seven responses were from individuals, five were from Public Bodies/Organisations, and 13 responses were from non-governmental organisations and industry bodies.