Consultation Guidance
This guidance accompanies the Code of Practice on Consultation published in 2008 and is therefore applicable to formal, written consultation exercises run by central government departments from 1 November 2008 and to similar exercises run by other public sector organisations that sign up to the Code.
Code of practice on consultation (PDF, 223KB)
While the Code sets out the government’s policy on formal consultation exercises, this guidance is intended to be more practical in nature, giving ideas and suggestions that may help officials run consultation exercises. It sets out the things you might want to take into account when considering, planning and running a consultation exercise.
Your Department may also provide specific guidance for consulting sectors of particular importance to your Department’s work and there is other guidance available, some provided by the public sector, some provided by training and consultancy organisations, and some provided by organisations that regularly respond to consultations setting out how they like to be consulted.
This guidance is simply intended to provide advice on consultation, in particular on formal, written consultation. It is not intended to prescribe certain approaches or set out government policy – for the government’s policy on formal, written consultation, see the Code of Practice on Consultation.
The Code and your Department’s Consultation Co-ordinator should be your starting point when considering a formal, public, written consultation exercise. However, there are other sources of additional information and other government commitments that affect how the government should run its consultation exercises such as:
Be aware that there is no such thing as a typical consultation – every exercise is different depending on the nature of the policy in question, the stakeholders concerned and the scope of the exercise, i.e. what has already been decided upon and what is still up for discussion. That said, you should ask your Consultation Co-ordinator about recent consultation exercises and speak to those who have run them to see what you can learn.
This guidance is intended to be more fluid than the Code of Practice. Pass onto your Consultation Co-ordinator any lessons you have learned from consultation exercises – there may be benefits in spreading these lessons across government and even referring to your work in this guidance. Feedback is always welcome.
This guidance has been designed to be used by policy officials charged with carrying out formal, public, written consultations for a central government department or another organisation which has signed up to the Code of Practice. It may also be useful for anyone in a public body that has not explicitly adopted the Code of Practice but who is looking for tips on running a consultation exercise.
Government Departments and other organisations signing up to the Code often produce their own, tailored guidance for their officials and so this guidance should be read in conjunction with any bespoke Departmental guidance.
If you have any comments about the guidance, or any further ideas about how we might improve or add to it, please contact the Better Regulation Executive at enquiries@bis.gsi.gov.uk.
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