Peers to scrutinise new Cabinet Office guidance on public consultation

A House of Lords committee is to consult on the Government’s controversial new guidance on the public consultation process, ahead of an evidence session with the Minister for Government Policy.

In July the Cabinet Office issued revised guidance, Consultation Principles, in which it called on Whitehall departments and other public bodies to adopt a “more targeted and proportionate” approach to the consultations that they carry out.

The guidance said that departments should not default to a 12-week period, but should follow a range of timescales. It also suggested that consultations should be “digital by default”, that is to say they would be conducted electronically.

Almost immediately after publication of Consultation Principles, ten national organisations sharply criticised the Department for Culture, Media & Sport for only allowing four weeks for a consultation on changes to the system for listed building consents.

The House of Lords’ Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee is now inviting views for a one-off evidence session with Oliver Letwin, Minister for Government Policy, on 11 December.

Lord Goodland, chair of the committee, said: “The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee’s task is to scrutinise all new regulations to see whether they are likely to achieve their stated policy objective. We look to the consultation exercise and how it was conducted to inform our consideration of how well proposed legislation might work in practice.

“We shall therefore take evidence from the Minister, and that session will be better informed if all interested parties let us know their views, by the end of November.” 

The committee said it was particularly seeking views on:

  • under what circumstances it might be reasonable for the Government to decide not to consult on policy development;
  • when - and for how long - consultation exercises should be held;
  • how the expectation that consultations would happen digitally will impact on different groups in society; and
  • whether this new approach to consultation will lead to improvements in the process and outcomes.

For more information, go to the committee’s website. Written evidence should arrive no later than 30 November 2012.