Scottish Government

Dear Consultee

CONSULTATION PAPER: ENHANCING OUR CARE OF SCOTLAND'S LANDSCAPES

I enclose the consultation paper Enhancing our Care of Scotland's Landscapes and invite your comments on the document.

Responding to this consultation paper

We are inviting written responses to the consultation on Enhancing our Care of Scotland's Landscapes by no later than noon on Monday 24 ^th April. Please send your response to:

nationalscenicarea@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
or
NSA Consultation

If you have any queries contact Malcolm Duce on 0131 244 4439 or you may leave a voicemail message on 0131 244 7713.

We would be grateful if you could clearly indicate in your response the sections or paragraphs to which you are responding. Any further comments may also be included. This will aid our analysis of the responses received.

This consultation, and all other Scottish Executive consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Executive website at http://www.Scotland.gov.uk/consultations . You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is.

The Scottish Executive now has an email alert system for consultations (SEconsult: http://www.Scotland.gov.uk/consultations/seconsult.aspx) . This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). SEconsult complements, but in no way replaces Scottish Executive distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all Scottish Executive consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.

Handling your response

We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public. Please complete and return the Respondee Information Form enclosed with this consultation paper as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.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 Executive are 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.

Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public (see the attached Respondee Information Form), these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Executive Library within 20 working days of the closing date and on the Scottish Executive consultation web pages by mid May 2006. We will check all responses where agreement to publish has been given for any potentially defamatory material before logging them in the library or placing them on the website. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the Scottish Executive Library on 0 131 244 4565. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.

What happens next?

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us reach a decision on the proposals for legislation for National Scenic Areas and associated management measures. If supported by consultation new legislation for national scenic areas will then be introduced at Stage 2 of the Planning Bill later this year, whilst Scottish Natural Heritage ( SNH) will carry out further work on guidance and management strategies in conjunction with the organisations identified in this consultation paper.

Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to me at the above address

R N McNeill
Policy Manager

RESPONDEE INFORMATION FORM: Enhancing our Care of Scotland's Landscapes

Please complete the details below and attach it with your response. This will help ensure we handle your response appropriately. Thank you for your help.

Consultation is an essential and important aspect of Scottish Executive working methods. Given the wide-ranging areas of work of the Scottish Executive, there are many varied types of consultation. However, in general, Scottish Executive consultation exercises aim to provide opportunities for all those who wish to express their opinions on a proposed area of work to do so in ways which will inform and enhance that work.

The Scottish Executive encourages consultation that is thorough, effective and appropriate to the issue under consideration and the nature of the target audience. Consultation exercises take account of a wide range of factors, and no two exercises are likely to be the same.

Typically Scottish Executive consultations involve a written paper inviting answers to specific questions or more general views about the material presented. Written papers are distributed to organisations and individuals with an interest in the issue, and they are also placed on the Scottish Executive web site enabling a wider audience to access the paper and submit their responses ¹. Consultation exercises may also involve seeking views in a number of different ways, such as through public meetings, focus groups or questionnaire exercises. Copies of all the written responses received to a consultation exercise (except those where the individual or organisation requested confidentiality) are placed in the Scottish Executive library at Saughton House, Edinburgh (K Spur, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH 11 3XD, telephone 0131 244 4565).

All Scottish Executive consultation papers and related publications (eg, analysis of response reports) can be accessed at: Scottish Executive consultations ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations) .

The views and suggestions detailed in consultation responses are analysed and used as part of the decision making process, along with a range of other available information and evidence. 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

Final decisions on the issues under consideration will also take account of a range of other factors, including other available information and research evidence.

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.