Public Consultation
We believe in the value and power of effective public consultation to bring organisations and the public closer together. Our consultations can help you empower citizens, uncover new insights, create meaningful dialogue and generate buy-in for proposals.
TONIC has conducted 60 public consultations on behalf of clients such as the Ministry of Justice, Department for Health and Social Care, and Food Standards Agency. We have collected and analysed over 2 million consultation responses.
We offer both a full service and specific elements such as consultation design, hosting the consultation, collecting data, independent analysis, reporting and assisting in developing ways forward.
Why TONIC?
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Academic Rigour
Our experienced, qualified analysts apply Thematic Analysis for free text responses and advanced data analytics for closed questions, to generate meaningful insights and robust evidence.
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Powerful Reporting
Infographics, visual summaries and impactful presentations ensure that findings are accessible and shareable to help complete the feedback loop and build stakeholder buy-in.
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Lived Experience
We champion the voice of the citizen, service user or groups affect by proposals. Ensuring that the key themes and their words are heard, understood and have an impact.
Case study
The ‘May Contain’ Consultation for the Food Standards Agency
Current labelling legislation requires food products to indicate the presence of any of the 14 main allergens used as an ingredient or processing aid. Where there is a risk of unintentional allergen cross-contamination, and the risk cannot be sufficiently controlled, precautionary allergen statement should be used to advise the consumer and other businesses in the supply chain of the risk. This information can be communicated via precautionary allergen labels on pre-packaged food or on menus/signs when the food is not pre-packed, such as fruit and vegetables or in a restaurant.
Recent studies conducted by the FSA have found that while food-hypersensitive consumers, individuals with food allergies, intolerances, or conditions such as coeliac disease, appreciate precautionary allergen information, they can experience confusion as a result of the way this information is communicated.
This is particularly the case with information regarding an unavoidable risk of allergen cross-contact, as wording tends to differ between products and this can, therefore, obscure the precise risk a label is attempting to portray.
It has been suggested that businesses require greater clarity in terms of the measures they need to take to protect their consumers; this concerns the measures that need to be taken to control the risk of allergen cross-contamination in the first place which in turn informs their labelling decisions. As such, TONIC worked in partnership with Basis Social to conduct research that would help inform future guidance on the use of precautionary allergen information.
Our approach
We chose an online survey hosted on SurveyMonkey, and email campaign, both consisting of open and closed questions on the following themes: Information Provision to Consumers, Compliance, Advice and Training, Standards for Risk Analysis.
We received 2,459 responses, 84% of which came from members of the public, and 97% of whom either had a food hypersensitivity themselves or cared for someone who did. Other responses came from businesses, Local Authority Food officers, scientists, academics or clinical professionals. We conducted quantitative and qualitative (thematic) analysis. We also received 23 written responses from business organisations, local authorities, health authorities, and consumer organisations, and held 13 virtual stakeholder workshops.
The outcome
TONIC produced a comprehensive report detailing the findings of each of the four investigated themes collected from the online consultation, written responses and workshops. Alongside quantitative data displayed in graphs and statistics, the report also includes direct, anonymised quotes that give greater detail into the reasoning behind answers.
“Great report – a fitting end to a great piece of work. Congrats to all involved.”
Get in touch
If you’re considering a public consultation and need an experienced team to conduct or advise on your consultation, contact us today - we’d love the chance to discuss your project.