Introduction In public decision making, it is common to treat volume as protection. More meetings. More survey returns. More submissions. The assumption is that a larger evidence base makes a decision safer under scrutiny. That assumption is often wrong. Scrutiny rarely turns on how much engagement you ran. It turns on whether your evidence base […]
Why does more Consultation Evidence Weaken Decision-Making Read More »
The Promise and the Caution AI is arriving in government consultation. Cambridge City Council’s planning department and the Central Government are piloting systems to process responses faster, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of work-days annually. But citizens demand rigorous oversight. The public holds AI to higher standards than humans and expects transparency. Any hint of
AI and Code Framing: A Framework for Responsible Adoption Read More »
The risks of premature engagement What happens when an organisation moves to public engagement before fully developing its options? From the NHS to local councils to infrastructure projects, consultations can falter when the option development phase has been insufficient. Moving to public engagement without robust option development can lead to weaker outcomes, increased legal risk,
From Gunning to Moseley: What Case Law Tells Us About Option Development Read More »
Introduction Public consultations must be fair and inclusive, ensuring all participants can understand proposals and provide meaningful feedback. One of the well-known Gunning Principles for lawful consultation requires that sufficient information be provided to allow for “intelligent consideration and response”. In practice, when information isn’t readily accessible, whether due to format, language, or barriers related
Gunning Principles and Accessibility: Why 20% Can’t Access Your Public Consultation Read More »
What is the Challenge? When planning major changes to emergency services, the stakes are significant. Decisions such as closing fire stations or adopting new policing models affect public safety and trust. A poorly managed public consultation can backfire, leading to community backlash, delays, or even legal challenges. For Chief Fire Officers, Police and Crime Commissioners,
When 94% Say No: Getting Emergency Service Consultations Right Read More »
When a council issues a Section 114 notice, it declares that it cannot balance its budget. Recent years have seen Woking, Thurrock, Slough, Croydon and Birmingham reach this crisis point. Yet even in this emergency state, councillors and officers remain legally bound to consult fairly and meaningfully on service cuts or budget changes. The stakes
Consultation under Section 114: Engaging Communities amid Financial Crisis Read More »
Public Consultation Requirements Public sector leaders routinely face a deceptively simple question: does this change require formal public consultation? The answer matters enormously. Consult too little and you risk legal challenge, damaged trust and derailed projects; consult too much and you waste scarce resources on unnecessary process. This guide cuts through the complexity. It explains
Public Consultation? A Practical Test for ‘Significant Change’ in the Real World Read More »
A Shift in Where Risk Lives Three cases in particular mark out the current territory: West Dulwich Service Station v Lambeth (2025), Hawes v Tower Hamlets (2024), and the Court of Appeal’s judgment in Sheakh v Lambeth (2022). Together with HHRC Ltd v Hackney(2021), they reveal a decisive shift in where legal risk now sits. The standard for consultation design has not
What Recent LTN Cases Tell Us About Consultation Risk: From Process to Product Read More »
Scrapping Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) may look like an efficiency gain – but it risks widening the gap between police and the public. The government’s own figures note turnout and awareness have been “incredibly low” for PCCs, with around 2-in-5 people not even knowing who their PCC is. These challenges, however, don’t stem from
The challenge: 500 identical campaign emails arrive overnight. Most teams either delete them (triggering a Gunning Principle 4 breach) or count each as independent evidence (distorting the analysis). Both approaches create grounds for judicial review. The cost: Wasted consultation effort. Loss of public trust. Legal challenge that exposes your process as arbitrary. What works: Count every submission. Aggregate
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