Stakeholder engagement

Why organisations use Citizen Space for stakeholder consultation

Handle technical, evidence-based submissions

Stakeholder consultations generate responses that look nothing like public feedback. Citizen Space lets stakeholders upload supporting documents alongside their responses, submit lengthy technical analysis, and provide the kind of substantive input that informs regulatory and policy decisions. No character limits, no simplified forms—just the structure you need to gather serious responses.

Run private consultations when needed

Not every stakeholder engagement needs to be public. When consulting on sensitive policy development, commercially confidential matters, or pre-publication proposals, you can run private consultations that are only accessible to invited stakeholders.

Private feedback forms and surveys let you gather views from specific organisations, advisory groups, or expert panels before opening to wider consultation. You control who can access the consultation whilst maintaining the same data management as public consultations.

Publish responses to demonstrate transparency

Many regulatory and policy consultations require you to publish stakeholder responses (with consent) to show you heard from the sector. Citizen Space allows you to publish responses. Stakeholders can choose whether their submission is public, anonymous, or confidential when they respond.

Hear from more people without adding friction

Stakeholders are busy. Senior executives, technical experts, and professional representatives are responding to multiple consultations whilst doing their actual jobs. Because Citizen Space requires no account creation or login, they can respond immediately from any device without remembering passwords or creating profiles they'll never use again.

For international consultations, this matters even more. No timezone issues with email verification, no accounts locked because someone's travelling, no barriers between the stakeholder and their submission.

Export for the analysis you actually need to do

Stakeholder responses require proper analysis—coding themes, identifying consensus and divergence, comparing industry positions, extracting technical recommendations. Citizen Space lets you tag responses and export all response data in formats that work with your analytical process. With our market leading data API getting your data into the tools you use (Microsoft Power BI, Google Looker Studio) it's easier than ever so you're not locked into platform analytics when you need to do serious policy analysis.

Stakeholder engagement in action

Citizen Space handles professional consultations where responses come from organisations, experts, and sector representatives rather than the general public.

Regulatory review and rule changes

Financial regulators consult regulated firms, industry associations, and consumer representatives on market rules, licensing requirements, and enforcement policy. Environmental regulators consult industry on permit conditions, monitoring requirements, and compliance frameworks. Professional regulators consult practitioners, employers, and professional bodies on standards and disciplinary procedures.

Legislative and policy consultation

‍Government departments consult sector experts, representative bodies, delivery organisations, and affected industries before introducing legislation or major policy changes. Ministries gather detailed technical input from those who will implement or be affected by policy decisions.

Industry standards and codes

‍Sector bodies consult members and stakeholders on technical standards, codes of practice, industry guidance, and voluntary frameworks. Trade associations gather views from member companies on collective positions and sector strategy.

Market reviews and competition inquiries

‍Competition authorities and regulators consult market participants, industry analysts, consumer representatives, and economic experts on market structure, merger decisions, and regulatory interventions.

Technical and scientific consultation

‍Regulatory bodies consult scientific experts, research institutions, and technical specialists on evidence bases, risk assessments, and technical guidance. Health regulators consult medical professionals and researchers on clinical guidelines and safety standards.

How stakeholder consultation works on Citizen Space

1. Set up your consultation

Upload your consultation document—whether that's a regulatory proposal, policy white paper, technical standards draft, or call for evidence. Structure questions that will generate the substantive input you need: open text for detailed analysis, specific questions on technical points, requests for evidence and case studies.

2. Notify stakeholders

Promote your consultation through sector channels—industry newsletters, professional networks, regulatory announcements, representative bodies. Stakeholders access the consultation directly without creating accounts or logging in.

3. Gather detailed responses

Stakeholders submit technical responses with supporting documents—economic analysis, technical studies, case law, evidence bases, industry data. Organisations identify themselves and their role. Responses can be as detailed as needed without platform limitations.

4. Manage confidentiality appropriately

Some stakeholders submit commercially sensitive information or confidential analysis. Citizen Space lets respondents mark submissions as anonymous at the point of submission—you're not manually managing confidentiality requests after the fact.

5. Analyse substantive input

Export all responses for proper policy analysis. Code qualitative submissions, identify sector consensus and divergence, extract technical recommendations, and compare organisational positions. Use your existing analytical tools rather than being limited to platform reporting.

6. Publish and close the loop

Publish non-confidential responses to show who you heard from and what they said. Explain in your decision document how you've considered stakeholder input. Complete audit trails demonstrate fair process if decisions face challenge or judicial review.