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BY ELAINE SAMUEL University of Edinburgh AND IAN CLARK Scottish Government Social Research
2 WHAT THE CONSULTEES SAID
2.1 Introduction
Many of those organisations and individuals who provided comments on Lord Bonomy’s Report did not comment on every recommendation. In some cases, respondents stated that they felt particular recommendations were not for them to comment on. The absence of responses to particular questions should not be taken to mean that respondents either agreed or disagreed with the recommendations – it is not possible to tell. However, if they felt strongly about the recommendations one way or the other, they had the opportunity to comment on them, and the results showed there was almost unanimous support for the idea of bringing a greater degree of certainty into the conduct of the proceedings.
The public consultation exercises with specific categories of court user and ‘harder to reach’ groups involved a limited number of key themes likely to be most relevant to each group. These groups were not asked to comment on every recommendation, as many involved complex technical matters relating to High Court criminal procedure that would impact mainly on criminal justice practitioners, not members of the public.
Some responses were made on behalf of organisations by their office-bearers and encompassed a range of views (though the number of individual views represented by an institutional response is not always known). A straightforward numerical count ‘for’ and ‘against’ recommendations would, therefore, be inappropriate and could be misleading. It was necessary to assume that responses made by the office bearers of large organisations such as, for example, the Law Society of Scotland, reflect the views of the majority of their members. As the analysis of responses below shows, however, there was not always unanimity of views within (or between) organisations.
All non-confidential responses may be inspected by arrangement. Please write to Mrs M Ramage, the Scottish Government Justice Department, Criminal Procedure Division, 1WR, St. Andrew’s House, Regent Road, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG or email moira.ramage@scotland.gsi.gov.uk .