Scotland's most important decision for 300 years
The challenge
Ahead of Scotland's independence referendum, described as the country's most important decision for 300 years, the Scottish Government needed to consult citizens on the content and timing of the referendum. They required a system that could handle very high response rates whilst maintaining accessibility, manage complex consultation documents, integrate with other websites and social networks, and publish responses with appropriate redaction capabilities. The scale and significance of the consultation demanded a platform that could be deployed quickly and handle thousands of responses efficiently.
The approach
The Scottish Government chose Citizen Space as their consultation platform. The system was set up rapidly, with a two day turnaround from sign-off to go-live. They used the platform to manage a series of consultations with consistent branding across their digital presence, including integration with other websites, blogs and social networks.
Custom development enabled them to rapidly handle large numbers of consultation responses. The platform's built-in redaction and publishing capabilities allowed them to manage responses transparently whilst protecting respondent privacy where needed.
The results
The consultation received 23,569 responses through Citizen Space, compared with just 725 submitted via email or post, demonstrating the accessibility and ease of use of the digital platform.
Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the responses formed the basis of a comprehensive consultation report, which identified key findings about public opinion on how the referendum should be run. This included a majority preference for Saturday voting and allowing 16 to 17 year olds to vote, both of which ultimately shaped the Scottish Government's proposal for the referendum.
The Scottish Government published consultation responses directly on Citizen Space where permission had been given, ensuring transparency throughout the process.
We wanted to make the process of responding to the consultation as simple as possible - simple for users to express their views, and simple for us to redact, analyse and publish those responses... We were very happy with the outcome.
Delib is a govtech leader specialising in consultation and engagement, trusted by over 600 government organisations worldwide, including major planning projects. Since 2004, we've been building secure, accessible digital platforms to make participation simpler, fairer, and more inclusive. Our flagship product, Citizen Space, was built in collaboration with the UK government and has supported more than 11 million responses across over 110,000 democratic activities.