The Consultation Institute has today issued advice to all members and the public on how the ongoing coronavirus crisis will affect consultation and public engagement. The Institute advises on key questions as to whether your consultations should proceed, reasonable alterations you should make to your processes to ensure that they remain within the expected standards, and alternative solutions you may need to consider to collect responses. Although the Government has recently moved to the ‘delay’ phase of the outbreak, for now, Institute advice remains the same.

As the situation is rapidly changing, the Institute expects that we will be issuing further guidance as changes happen. We will of course keep all members up to date as and when this happens. Given the extraordinary nature of the circumstances, the Institute is making this advice publicly available with no restrictions. The full advice can be found here.