Scottish Government hiding GRA Consultation results

There are grounds for authorities to refuse FOI's www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/WhatMightINotSee.aspx

How is it legal to refuse FOI requests?

No worries. xxx

This is unbelievable. I mean I believe it; but it's unbelievable.

Utterly shameful. We won't wheesht. Hope it is spelt right, not fluent in Scottish. Wholly with you, though

I'm writing to my chocolate teapot MSP again, I haven't written since he told me there were more than two sexes as I just lost the will utterly.

Thanks for spreading the word G

Fab, thanks @glinner for passing that over to Wings.

I'm just flabbergasted by that statement - they're just determined to ignore the majority of respondents to a consultation. Why even go through the pretence of consulting?

This statement is mindblowing. I can't believe this ideological coup is happening right in front of our eyes.

Doh! I see now the post was originally from Mumsnet. sorry but not sorry because it's really useful.

I've sent it to both of them along with this comment from someone on my blog. It may be useful to all of you when writing to your MSPs too.

"Langcleg post -interesting information from Mumsnet: What the hell is the point of consultation if you have already made your policy

It's not acceptable for a consultation to be a fait accompli, that is set out in the Gunning Principles:

www.bangthetable.com/blog/gunning-principles/

Just in case you didn’t already know, in the UK, public bodies can’t just go ahead and make unfair or irrational decisions without possible comeback. Rather, they can be taken to court by the public and their representatives and held to account by the Judiciary. The Gunning Principles are the founding legal principles applicable to public consultation in the UK. They were first laid down in 1985 by Mr Stephen Sedley QCC^ and have stood the test of time in successive court judgements, making them applicable to all public consultations that take place in the UK.

They consist of four principles, which if followed, are designed to make consultation fair and lawful:

Gunning 1 – Consultation must be at a time when proposals are still at a formative stage

Gunning 2 – Sufficient reasons must be put forward for any proposal to permit “intelligent consideration” and response

Gunning 3 – Adequate time is given for consideration and response

Gunning 4 – The product of consultation is conscientiously taken into account by the decision maker(s)

Put simply, these criteria are a “prescription for fairness” and mean that a public body must: consult before they have made up their mind (albeit that an open mind is not an empty mind); provide people with the right kind of information for them to be able to take part in the consultation; give people enough time to participate and respond; and, give consultation responses conscientious consideration."

I'll send to both. Speaking of which, Wings told me that the order to ban both of us from Twitter came from the London offices. I really want more people to know that.

I know that Wings Over Scotland are controversial but I'm wondering whether they might be able to get the word out.

@Glinner Are you able to highlight this with our dear Baroness? I know she will have no jurisdiction in Scotland but perhaps if it were on her radar a repeat might be prevented in England/the rest of the UK.

[quote Glinner]Put it on the site. Hope it helps! Absolutely outrageous
grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/the-fix-is-in[/quote]

Just when I think my gob couldn't be smacked anymore, shit like this happens.

I despair. I have never voted SNP but it's irrelevant now who did or didn't. I know many SNP voters who are blissfully ignorant about this sort of thing.

We need to make everyone aware.

@KimikosNightmare thank you for clarifying that - I didn't think it was the case but wasn't definite.

Thank you very much @Glinner!

Put it on the site. Hope it helps! Absolutely outrageous
grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/the-fix-is-in

Because it doesn’t fit in with the stonewall narrative perhaps?

Was there some pushback from the public becoming more gender critical?

It stinks to high hell. There’s a nefarious reason why they aren’t releasing this information. It must be illegal to hide this from the public

Would it be worth us all writing to MSPs about this?

Sadly I doubt it.

Would it be worth us all writing to MSPs about this?

Someone has mentioned that Joanna Cherry is already on the case. I'm not sure about the Baroness' authority here and presumably this is a devolved matter.

I'm going to tag @glinner in this anyway

I don't suppose the Baroness has any authority in Scotland? Might be useful to get it onto her radar to raise concerns that public consultations are being ridden roughshod over.