The Scottish Government use consultations as an essential and important means of communicating and hearing the views of the general public. Consultations provide the opportunity for all those who wish to express their opinions on a proposed area of work to do so through written papers, public meetings, focus groups, questionnaire exercises or on-line discussion forums.
Consultations usually involve a written paper inviting answers to specific questions or more general views about the material presented. Consultation documents are distributed to organisations and individuals with an interest in the particular area, and they are also posted under the current consultations section of this website. To view details of all current Scottish Government consultations click here.
The Evangelical Alliance Scotland public affairs team encourages all our members to submit individual responses to specific consultations. But as an organisation we hope to speak on behalf of all our members through submitting our own response. Details of these can be found below.
Charities Regulation OSCR Consultation In Spring 2008 the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator consulted the public on its guidelines for organisations wanting to become a charity. This follows the introduction of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 which came into force in April 2006. Section 5 of the Act states that the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) may enter a new applicant in the Register only if it considers that the applicant meets the charity test. The body meets the test if:
(a)its purposes consist only of one or more of the charitable purposes, and
((b) )it provides (or, in the case of an applicant, provides or intends to provide) public benefit in Scotland or elsewhere.
The full details of the charitable purposes and public benefit can we found in the guidance for applicants:click here. EA Scotland submitted its own response to the consultation. To view the response from EA Scotland click here.
Rape and Sexual Offences On the 17 March 2008 the Scottish Government ended its public consultation on the Scottish Law Commissions recommendations to Rape and Sexual Offences bill. EA Scotland submitted its own response the main points were:
-The Evangelical Alliance recognised that there is a need to reform the current law on rape and sexual offences, understanding the inconsistencies and lack of clarity within the current law in this area and the negative impacts this can have in criminalising against sexual offences.
-We agreed with the general principle of gender neutrality within the recommendations of the Commission. The Evangelical Alliance believes that offences should not distinguish between male and female victims nor between male and female perpetrators.
-We agreed that sexual assaultshould become a separate offence within Scottish law and not subsumed within the general offence of assault.
-We did not agree with the recommendation that sex between children aged 13-16 should be legalised. We suggested that while a young person may be physically mature enough to engage in sexual activity, this may not be matched by emotional capability and moves to reduce the age at which sexual activity between young people is deemed acceptable should be resisted. We therefore not do believe that criminal law has a role in promoting the sexual autonomy of children.
To view the full response from EA Scotland click here.
The Scottish Parliament debated the Commissions proposals on 6 March. After considering the responses from the public the Government will create a draft bill and introduce it to the Parliament in Summer 2008. The bill is likely to be significantly changed within the parliamentary legislative process, especially because Government officials have suggested they would prefer to see it changed at committee stage rather than before.
