Edinburgh Airport has completed Phase I of a two-stage consultative process on proposed changes to its Airspace. The Consultation Institute has undertaken a Quality Assurance leading to a GOOD PRACTICE certificate. In the published report, the Institute has provided the following commentary:

The Institute, founded in 2003, is a not-for-profit, best practice body dedicated to improving public and stakeholder consultation. Part of its work is to undertake a formal Quality Assurance of high-profile exercises where the integrity of the process is considered to be important. On this occasion, and in the light of public reactions to the TUTUR flight path trial in 2015, Edinburgh Airport commissioned the Institute to provide a Quality Assurance service in respect of the formal consultation planned for the summer of 2016.

We appointed Quintin Oliver to act as Adviser to the Airport and Rhion Jones LL.B to act as Assessor. In line with best practice, the Institute reviewed the actions and activities undertaken by the Airport in preparation for the consultation. As a consequence, it recommended the establishment of an independent Stakeholder Reference Group, so that the Airport’s conduct of the consultation be subject not just to the Institute’s QA process but to the opinions and views of a forum of well-informed local stakeholders. The Institute assisted in organising such a Group and is pleased that Dame Sue Bruce accepted the role of Chair.

The QA process requires the Institute to sign off each of six separate ‘interventions’, each of which places onerous requirements upon the consultor:

• The Institute signed off the Scope of the consultation – noting that this was heavily prescribed by Guidelines from the CAA (themselves under review);
• The Institute examined the Project Plan in detail, and required improvements to it concerning Equalities Analysis, and clarification of the post-consultation timetable before it was signed off;
• Although much of the published Documentation, including broadcast adverts, had been prepared before the Institute’s involvement began, we were able to review most and approve it for ‘sign-off’;
• On 12 August, we conducted a full Mid-Review of the consultation, and identified limitations to the data emerging from the single-question format, and from the absence of complete demographic information on consultees. We also required a more active programme of contacts with specific communities of interest, and steps to mitigate the overreliance upon the online survey as a response mechanism. The Mid-Review was therefore given a conditional sign-off;
• In the week commencing 29 August, the Airport suffered a failure of its website resulting in the loss of significant numbers (up to 200) of respondent data. The Institute had to decide the extent to which this would compromise the consultation and its Quality Assurance. We held detailed discussions with the consultor, and considered the range of actions taken in response to this failure, including the week’s extension to the consultation timetable. Uppermost in our minds was the need to be sure that overall, those affected by the Airport’s future plans and other interested stakeholders would still have had a reasonable opportunity to express their views as part of the consultation. As this is a preliminary exercise, and that specific route options will be consulted upon in 2017, the Institute decided that, notwithstanding this failure, it was possible to ‘sign off’ the Closing Date intervention on 23rd September 2016. Edinburgh Airport has been advised that this failure will make it impossible to record the consultation as having been ‘best practice’, and detailed recommendations have been made to reduce the risk of any similar recurrence;
• The Institute reviewed the draft report, sought the views of the Stakeholder Reference Group and signed off the final report on 22nd November 2016.

The Institute takes into account the overall context of a public consultation. In this case, it recognises the high levels of public interest in any changes to flight paths, and the anxieties of some residents who worry about the impact upon them and their neighbours. We have been impressed by the Airport’s programme of dialogue with local communities, and its working relations with local Councillors, MSPs and business leaders. The Institute requires the Airport to give ‘conscientious consideration’ to all respondent views and to ensure that they are taken into account in the forthcoming task of developing options for further consultation on specific routes; we are confident that this will occur. Having looked at all the available information, and noted the views of the Stakeholder Reference Group, the Institute is satisfied that, overall, the public consultation has been conducted in accordance with current GOOD PRACTICE, and where aspects of the exercise fell short of the required standards, that Edinburgh Airport is fully aware of improvements it should seek to implement in the next phase of the Flight Paths change programme.

Quintin Oliver – Adviser

Rhion H Jones LL.B – Assessor