Background and Support

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 (“the Act”) aims to enhance community involvement in community planning by a number of means including the creation of new opportunities for influencing public service provision and decision-making. 

The spirit of the Act is one of improving outcomes for communities, encouraging and promoting dialogue, tackling inequalities, and supporting the increased participation of those whose voices are less heard or who face additional barriers.

Part 3 of the Act (Participation Requests) is focused on extending and improving community participation in improving outcomes for communities. The Act enables communities to request to participate in decisions and processes which are aimed at improving outcomes.  Under section 22 of the Act a community participation body may make such a request to a public service authority to permit the body to participate in an outcome improvement process.

Public service authorities must then publish in a Decision Notice the decision it has taken in respect of any such request.

The following are the Decision Notices issued by the Comhairle under the Act.

Support and Advice

The Comhairle is happy to discuss prospective applications with groups prior to a formal submission.  The Scottish Community Development Centre has produced a Participation Request Resource pack (Opens in a new window or downloads a file) which aims to help communities understand the legislation and to help them make a constructive participation request around outcomes that will result in improvements for communities and public service agencies.  You may find it useful to consult that resource.

Contact

Tim Langley, Head of Law and Governance
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
Sandwick Road
Stornoway
HS1 2BW

Tel. : 01851 822 604
e-Mail : tim.langley@cne-siar.gov.uk