Public consultation has one over-riding weakness. It leaves consultees often unsure whether decision-makers take even the slightest notice of what they say. Any contribution they make to a consultation seems to disappear, as if into a black hole, from which little or nothing emerges. No matter what decision is taken, the suspicion can remain that the consultation was a going-through-the-motions PR exercise, and that minds had been made up long before the results were analysed.

Public Consultation Hearings are possible solutions and can be used by many public bodies and organisations that want to demonstrate that they are listening. The real issue is the role of evidence in public policy-making, and that the increased transparency that comes with public hearings and the practice of video-streaming.

The Institute identifies eight specific advantages of a Public Consultation Hearing, as compared with other for a public debate:

1. It generates public interest and signals a participative process

2. It brings parties together

3. It clarifies the subject-matter of the issue

4. It is a public demonstration of evidence-gathering

5. It provides opportunities for direct communication of arguments

6. It obliges participants to prepare well with supportable arguments

7. Conclusions are more likely to be justified from the evidence

8. Hearings lend themselves to visibility for a wider audience

There are disadvantages, of course. Time and money has to be spent and, being realistic, many senior decision-makers actively dislike having to hear from those who may disagree with them. Overall, however, Public Hearings can be an effective way to handle disputes or to consider evidence and is potentially a dominant method for a wide range of society’s issues.

To find out more about Public Consultation Hearings, and receive a copy of our Briefing Paper, call us at the Institute on 01767 318 350.