A public sector organisation recently showed us its plan to take a sensitive and controversial decision. There had been extensive consultation and a distinct majority of respondents had a clear view of what should happen.

What it proposed was a detailed formula whereby five operational factors would be considered, with points awarded according to the assessment made of each criterion. But there was a sixth factor, called ‘Public acceptability’ – given a weighting equal to some of the other factors and higher than others. It prompts the question of whether consultation responses can be considered alongside other factors, or whether they are in some way different in kind from other types of data likely to be taken into account.