I have lost count of the number of occasions when my morning ritual has been interrupted by the need to pay particular attention to an item on the TODAY programme.

None is more memorable than an interview with Michael Gove some weeks ago when the Windrush scandal threatened to engulf the Government and there was a clear need for diversionary tactics to move the news agenda elsewhere. Up popped the Environment Secretary with an announcement of a forthcoming consultation about single-use plastics. The Daily Mail was in raptures, claiming credit for its campaign and anything else that would appeal to its readers, and we heard a very responsible-sounding Minister promising action by the end of the year.

Nothing wrong in this of course, or the dozen or so other consultations that have been featured on this Radio 4 flagship programme. It provides valuable airtime for Ministers to explain their policies and, to be fair encourages them to come along with a well-prepared case. Were they to appear with a ‘fait accompli’ single-issue consultation, I imagine that John Humphrys’ interrogation would soon reveal the fact. Occasionally, as in the recent case of minimum stakes for Fixed Odds Betting terminals, one senses that Ministers genuinely found consultation responses useful and it emboldened them to take the more radical of the available options. One of the best recent case studies of public consultations making a difference. The policy outcome could be neatly attributed, at least in part to the process.

So, this is where the broadcasters need to do better. Only rarely does the TODAY programme cover the rest of the story. For politicians to parade their listening skills at the beginning of a consultation is the easy part. The more challenging task is to explain what they are doing with consultation responses. We have not seen enough investigative journalism examining the data that government departments have gathered, and they have therefore missed a large number of stories where consultations have been launched in a blaze of publicity but died of neglect and buried in unmarked graves somewhere in Whitehall.

The one story that has emerged in recent weeks has been when Paul Morgan-Bentley of The Times analysed these forgotten consultations, and accused the Government of mismanaging the process. Quite right too. But the reason why we see little examination of the post-consultation policy-making is that some (not all) government departments prefer to sit on the response data for months whilst the policy-making bunfight takes place; then they publish the data only as part of the Outcome report. In effect. “This is what we have decided to do… and, by the way, this is what you said …” 

That is the wrong way around. We need consultors to publish what has been said in response to their consultations. Then political commentators and interviewers can legitimately quiz them on the influence they should have upon the imminent decision-making. At this stage – after the closing date, but before the decision is taken there are a host of questions that should be openly addressed

• Did the consultation secure the involvement of key stakeholders?
• Was everyone given a reasonable opportunity to state their views?
• Was it possible to engage with a diverse set of views?
• Did anyone with a significant viewpoint fail to participate?
• What issues or concerns were raised by respondents?
• Have there been some good ideas worthy of further investigation?
• Have any of the external factors impinging upon the decision changed?
• Is it clear who exactly is going to take the decision?
• … and when?

Would it not be good if influential programmes like TODAY raised these matters on high-profile consultations? Or is it possible that they try to do so but fail to persuade Ministers to come along and be interviewed? Are they, maybe, hiding behind the formula that whilst the data is being analysed, and matters are being considered, it is best to keep quiet? There are occasions when this might be appropriate, but it would surely help if the current affairs media was to show a degree of interest in following-up on public consultations that matter.

Announce … and forget may suit the PR agenda of politicians but if consultation is to work as a mechanism of informed public and stakeholder participation, we need to keep a spotlight on the whole process … not just its opening ceremony.

In The Politics of Consultation,  published on 12^th July, we consider the way in which politicians are accountable for the consultation process. The use of Radio 4’s TODAY programme is a great example of what more may need to be done.