Best practice for consultations
Community participation projects that seek to understand people’s opinions are often called consultations. However, consultation is a formal process with certain requirements that if not followed can lead to legal challenge.
If your project doesn’t meet the criteria for formal consultation, it is best not to call it that.
Formal consultation is required in the following cases:
- Legislation: Some activities or decision carry a statutory requirement to consult. This can include the removal or change to a service (e.g. the closure of a children’s centre) or planning decisions for a new development.
- Legitimate expectation: This means that the public have reason to expect to be consulted for reasons such as:
- There has been a promise of consultation
- When official guidance or policies suggest consultation is necessary
- Where a decision can be said to have significant impacts on the community
- Where there would be a justified perception of unfairness if consultation wasn’t carried out
If you’re not sure whether or not to consult, please check with the Consultation and Engagement team or refer to Barnet’s Consultation Policy.
To help ensure your consultation is legally legitimate, always follow the Gunning Principles. These four principles create a strong foundation for legal legitimacy and councils will be judged against them if a consultation is challenged in judicial review.
- Consultation must take place when the proposals are still at a formative stage. Public bodies need to have an open mind during a consultation. They should not have already made the decision but may have some ideas about the proposals.
- Sufficient reasons must be put forward for proposals to enable intelligent consideration and response. The information provided must relate to the consultation and must be available, accessible and easy to understand so that people can provide an informed response.
- Adequate time must be given for consideration and response. There is no set timeframe for consultation, but there must be sufficient opportunity for people to participate in the consultation.
- The results of the consultation must be taken into account when the ultimate decision is taken. Decision makers need to demonstrate how consultation responses have been considered when making their decision.