About IESConsult

The Council of the Institution strongly believe that it is essential to the success of any public or private consultation exercise that suitably qualified professionals offer their input but recognise that it is difficult to keep abreast of all the various calls across the range of engineering disciplines. IESConsult is our method to assist with that process. We therefore encourage members to register their interests in general engineering topics or specific sectors that are under review. The working group will keep members informed of new consultations as they are launched and will report back on the outcome of any assessment conducted by members.

In early 2022, the president of the Institution of Engineers in Scotland, Andy Pearson, set up a pilot exercise to look at how the Institution might best respond to Government requests for consultation. As part of this, a small group was created, with the agreement of Council, to undertake some Consultation responses and help determine how practical the Institutions involvement in such matters might be.

At the time, it was felt that by virtue of making Consultation responses, the Institution would achieve several objectives. These benefits would include, but not necessarily be limited to :-

• - It would allow the Institution to influence Government policy in several important technical areas;
• - It would help disseminate the membership’s knowledge for the benefit of society at large;
• - It would raise the Institution’s public profile;
• - It would potentially promote healthy discussion / debate within the membership generally.

The working group quickly became IESConsult and at its first meeting its members established its terms of reference, which were:-

• - To monitor government Consultations issued for comment, identifying topics on which the Institution might reasonably be expected to have an informed view;
• - To highlight to the membership those Consultations so identified, and to seek contributions from the members at large;
• - To respond to any other public or private requests for consultation highlighted by members
• - To manage the Institution’s input to the consultation process ensuring that comments made were submitted to the correct body within the defined time-scale while ensuring that the comments were consistent with the Institutions ethos and reputation. This last necessitates the input being “decent, honest, legal and truthful”, it is a true reflection (as far as can be reasonably ascertained) of the membership’s opinions and it is – as far as is reasonably practicable – Politically neutral.