Scottish Government

3. INFORMATION ON THE CONSULTATION

CONSULTATION ON FURTHER SHELLFISH WATER DESIGNATIONS UNDER THE SHELLFISH WATERS (CLASSIFICATION) (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS ( SI 1997/2470)

Responding to this consultation paper

We are inviting written responses to this consultation paper by Friday 18 January 2008.

Please send your response, and the Respondent Information Form to:

waterdivision@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

or

Scottish Government
Water Pollution Control Team
Water, Air, Soil and Flooding Division

Fax: 0131 244 0259

If you have any queries, contact Fiona Watt on 0131 244 0215.

We would be grateful if you could clearly indicate in your response which questions or parts of the consultation paper you are responding to, as this will aid our analysis of the responses received.

This consultation, and all other Scottish Government consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Government 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. Alternative formats or translations into community languages are available on request from the contact details above.

The Scottish Government now has an email alert system for consultations ( 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 SG distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all SG 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 Respondent Information Form which forms part of 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 If you ask for your response not to be published, we will treat it as confidential and treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government 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 Respondent Information Form), these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Government Library and on the Scottish Government consultation web pages by the end of January 2008. 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. However it is your responsibility to ensure that any comments you do make are not defamatory; publication by the Scottish Government does not relieve you of responsibility for comments made nor indemnify you against any action for defamation that may be raised against you with regard to such comments. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the SG library on 0131 244 4550. 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 designation of new shellfish waters. We aim to issue a report on this consultation process by the end of January 2008, and make a Direction to SEPA on any new designated waters by the end of February 2008.

Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to

Fiona Watt
Scottish Government
Water Pollution Control Team
Water, Air, Soil and Flooding Division