Scottish Government consultations

 

Find and take part in consultations that interest or impact you. You can also view published responses and analysis.

Find consultations

Search for consultations

Closed Consultations

  • Rural Delivery Plan: vision, strategic objectives and key performance indicators

    Why are we writing a Rural Delivery Plan? The Scottish Government is committed to publishing a plan setting out how all parts of the Scottish Government are delivering for Scotland’s rural communities, by the end of the current Parliament. This is a key opportunity to take a fresh look at how we can work together to bring about change and address the issues that we face in rural...

    Closed 17 March 2025

  • Draft Implementation Plan: Vision for Scotland's public electric vehicle charging network

    Transport Scotland recently published a draft Implementation Plan that outlines the key actions that will deliver Scotland's previously published Vision for public electric vehicle (EV) charging . Transport Scotland are holding a public consultation to seek views on the draft Implementation Plan which sets out the proposed actions to deliver Scotland’s Vision for ...

    Closed 14 March 2025

  • Scottish Building Regulations: Proposed review of fire safety topics including Cameron House Hotel recommendations:

    This consultation seeks to obtain the views and opinions of stakeholders on a review of building standards relating to the fire safety of historic buildings converted for hotel use. Some wider fire safety issues are also considered to help ensure the safety of people in and around Scotland's buildings. The consultation covers six main areas, as follows: ...

    Closed 7 March 2025

We Asked, You Said, We Did

Here are some of the issues we have consulted on and their outcomes. See all outcomes

We asked

We asked for your views on a set of draft regulations to transfer the Police Appeals Tribunal (PAT) into the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland. The consultation asked ten questions around various proposals regarding the transfer of the PAT. The questions asked were a mix of open and closed questions. The consultation opened on 30 October 2024 and ran until 22 January 2025.

You said

There were seven responses to the consultation. Six (86%) came from organisations and one (14%) came from an individual. There was strong support for some of the proposals such as the procedure for the notice of appeal to be submitted followed by a reply from the respondent and for the routes of onward appeal from the PAT. There was broad support offered for proposals around the potential payment of expenses and the publication of decisions. Respondents to these questions agreed with these proposals but suggested that matters such as the circumstances of each case and data privacy concerns should be important considerations.

There was mixed support for the proposed membership of the PAT. Three responses were in favour of maintaining the current membership arrangements of three legal members while three responses felt there should be members with policing and lay experience.

The response to the open questions gave helpful feedback on some of the technical provisions within the draft regulations or made more general suggestions around clarifying certain procedure rules and the effect of recent primary legislation. There was also support for some of the general practices of the First-tier Tribunal, for example, the role of supporters, being included in the Procedure Rules.

We did

The views given on the proposed draft regulations will be used to inform the process of finalising the set of draft regulations regarding the transfer of the PAT. We will consider carefully all of the points raised when finalising the draft regulations.

We are grateful for the detailed responses to many of the questions and would like to thank everyone who responded. We have published the nonconfidential responses to the consultation (see links below).

View submitted responses where consent has been given to publish the response.

The full government consultation response has been published on the gov.scot website: Police Appeals Tribunal - transfer to First-tier Tribunal for Scotland: consultation analysis and response.

We asked

We asked for views on the proposed introduction of fixed penalty notices for offences under; 

  •  The Environmental Protection (Single-Use Vapes) (Scotland) Regulations 2024, 

  • The Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021,  

  • The Environmental Protection (Cotton Buds) (Scotland) Regulations 2019 and, 

  • The Environmental Protection (Microbeads) Regulations 2018. 

We sought your views on the levels at which we propose these penalties should be set, and asked for any comments in relation to other provisions in the Regulations.  

You said

We received 25 responses to this consultation. Of these, 11 responded as individuals and 14 on behalf of an organisation. Responses were primarily provided by Local Authority Trading Standards.  

An overwhelming majority of responses were supportive of the introduction of fixed penalty notices. Key points raised included extending the payment deadlines for fixed penalty notices, the introduction of an appeal mechanism for retailers if they believe an FPN was issued in error without an impact of the discount for early payment, raising the level of penalties set for fixed penalty notices, the importance of alignment with other UK nations, and the introduction of forfeiture and destruction provisions for single-use vapes supplied in contravention of the Vapes Regulations.  

We did

In response to feedback provided, we made the following changes to the Regulations: 

  • Amended the wording to remove the reference to online payments, to enable local authorities to utilise the most appropriate payment method in their area, as not all local authorities have an online payment system. 

  • Extended the payment deadlines to 14 days for discounted payments and 28 days for full payments for FPNs under the Vapes Regulations. This brings the deadlines in line with those in the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010 (TMPS), which Trading Standards officers (who are also responsible for enforcing these Regulations) are experienced at enforcing and under which FPNs are regularly issued. 

  • Included provision for a direction-making power in the Vapes Regulations which will enable the Scottish Ministers to direct that single-use vapes supplied in contravention of the regulations are to be treated as waste and disposed of or treated as appropriate. This brings the Scottish Regulations in line with similar provisions in the other UK vapes regulations. 

We agreed with the importance of alignment across the UK nations with regards to enforcement, and therefore opted to keep the proposed level of penalties as are set out in the draft Regulations. 

The full government consultation response has been published on the gov.scot website: Environmental Protection (Single-Use Vapes) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 - fixed penalty notice amendment consultation: response  

We asked

We asked for views on a minor amendment to road works legislation. We sought views on the proposal to revoke the Scottish Statutory Instrument which accounts for the target cost of operating the Scottish Road Works Register and replace it with a new Regulation to account for the overall running cost in the 2025/26 financial year. The projected running cost for 2025/26 will increase to £1,008,819 from £901,314.

You said

In total, nineteen responses to the consultation were received, primarily from roads authorities.  Seven responses were from individuals, three from statutory undertakers. Brief analysis of these responses is detailed below.

There was strong support for the proposal; sixteen of the nineteen responses gave support for the proposal. Two statutory undertakers and one individual were not content with the agreed cost sharing matrix developed by the Roads Authority and Utility Committee (Scotland).

Of the two undertaker responses in opposition to the proposal, one made no alternate suggestions but commented that road authority activities have largely increased. Whilst there has been increase in noticing of work carried out by road authorities, there was still a continuation of increase in utility works and at present utilities carry out 73% of the works. Another undertaker suggested a new splitting model for future years in addition to opposing the current one. 

We did

The consultation responses have been carefully considered, most of the respondents supported the proposal to replace the 2024 Scottish Statutory Instrument. As a result, we will now revoke the Scottish Statutory Instrument, “The “Scottish Road Works Register (Prescribed Fees) Regulations 2024”, and replace it with a new Regulation as proposed.