Consultation on the countryside premium scheme: creating a ‘market’ for information

This paper explores the agri-environmental policy network in Scotland, focusing on the public consultation concerning a new agri-environmental scheme. It applies one of the standard frameworks of market analysis, structure–conduct–performance (SCP) analysis, to explore how the interactions between policy actors, and particularly the provision of information, affect policy outcomes. An important stage in policy development is gathering information for the design and implementation of subsequent policy measures. In the UK, there has been increasing use of public consultation procedures as a means to obtain information from interest groups and individuals. This can be considered in terms of the government issuing a request or ‘demand’ for information, which is then ‘supplied’ by interested parties; a ‘market’ for information is thus created. In the spring of 1996, a consultation was undertaken by the Scottish Office Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries Department (SOAEFD), over a proposed new agri-environmental scheme, the Countryside Premium Scheme. This paper reports the results of an analysis of this consultation in terms of an information ‘marketʹ. This ‘market’ appeared to have an oligopolistic structure, with some barriers to entry, and involved considerable costs to the groups involved. Agricultural and environmental interest groups both appeared to have some impact on the policy outcome, though the type of impacts differed.