Submissions to the SDSR should have a sensible word-limit
8 September 2015
The Defence Committee has written to the Cabinet Office about its imposition of a word limit of only 1,500 characters on consultation responses to the Strategic Defence Review. The text of the letter is set out below:
On 15 August, it was reported in the national press that online submissions to the Government about the Strategic Defence and Security Review have been limited to 1,500 characters. Restricting the length of submissions to the equivalent of a dozen tweets fundamentally undermines the Government’s claim to be consulting widely on the SDSR. This derisory word-limit will gravely inhibit the ability of experts and interested parties to provide worthwhile evidence and argument on the direction and content of the Review.
Consequently, the Defence Committee believes that a sensible word-limit should be substituted, giving commentators an adequate opportunity to put forward their views. Rather than 1,500 characters, a total of 1,500 words would be an entirely reasonable total.
We trust that you will see merit in this proposal and agree it with the Cabinet Office, if necessary. In the meantime, please provide answers to the following questions:
1. Who decided to limit online submissions so drastically?
2. What were the reasons for doing this?
3. Does this limit also apply to hard-copy submissions?
4. What will happen to submissions which exceed the limit?
The Committee would be grateful for a response by Tuesday 22 September.