Your Consultation Coordinator
Each public body that signs up to the Code of Practice on Consultation nominates a Consultation Coordinator, who ensures that the Code is followed. See Criterion 7 of the Code of Practice.
Consultation Coordinators act as advisors to those conducting consultations. They keep each other informed as to what consultation work is going on and share experiences. The network of Consultation Coordinators is managed by the Better Regulation Executive, in the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS).
In organisations signing up to the Code of Practice, the role of a Consultation Coordinator is to:
- Work with colleagues to ensure that consultations carried out by policy teams in their organisations, as far as possible, comply with the Code.
- Advise on when consultation is appropriate, and on other means of seeking input.
- Ensure that policy teams throughout their organisation understand the role of the Consultation Coordinator. They should also make sure that policy teams notify the Coordinator of any new consultations being launched.
- Disseminate advice on training, on best practice and on developments affecting consultation, to policy teams throughout their organisation.
- Reduce overlap of consultations both within and beyond their own organisation, by promoting a coherent and ‘joined-up’ approach. This means liaising effectively with policy officials to make sure they have investigated whether other units or departments are consulting on a similar topic.
- Investigate and respond to any enquiries or complaints generated by a consultation carried out by their department.
- Maintain and collate information on the organisation’s consultations to go into the department’s annual report, as appropriate.
- Keep the organisation’s consultation web-pages up-to-date.
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