Biographical information on respondents

The main consultation asked respondents six questions about themselves and their use of the ferry network.

Table 2: Living situation of individual respondents

Respondent	I live on a Scottish island or peninsula the majority of the time	I live on the mainland the majority of the time	Prefer not to say	Total
Individuals	107	28	2	137
% of individuals	78%	20%	1%	99%

A majority of Individual respondents – 78% of those who answered the question –said that they live on a Scottish island or peninsula the majority of the time. Given the sample sizes for living on the mainland and an island or peninsula, there is limited scope for comparison between the two. However, taking their comments overall, there was nothing to suggest any clear differences in views depending on where people lived the majority of the time.

Islands and peninsulas where individual respondents live for the majority of the time, broken down into local authority area, community, and the total respondents in each area

North Ayrshire Council = 12

• Arran = 12

Argyll and Bute Council = 40

• Bute = 3
• Coll and Tiree = 2
• Colonsay = 2
• Gigha = 2
• Islay = 9
• Jura = 1
• Lismore = 5
• Mull and Iona = 9
• Cowal Peninsula = 1
• Rosneath Peninsula = 5
• Kintyre = 1

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar = 15

• Barra = 3
• Lewis and Harris = 9
• Uists = 3

The Highland Council = 8

• Eigg = 5
• Skye and Raasay = 2
• Ardnamurchan Peninsula = 1

Orkney Islands = 18

• Orkney Mainland or unspecified = 7
• North Isles = 10
• South Isles = 1

Shetland Islands = 11

• Shetland Mainland or unspecified = 6
• Unst and Yell = 3
• Whalsay = 2

All areas = 104

Of the 107 Individual respondents who indicated that they live mainly on an island or peninsula, (Table 2) all but three provided further information about which one. The individual island/peninsula indicated most frequently was the Isle of Arran, while the largest number of respondents overall lived in Argyll and Bute.

Responses for individual respondents are set out in Table 3 below.

Table 3: Responses by age bracket (figures rounded to nearest whole number)

Respondent	16 to 18	19 to 21	22 to 34	35 to 44	45 to 54	55 to 59	60 & over	Prefer not to say	Total
Individuals	1	1	6	11	18	24	71	5	137
% of individuals	1%	1%	4%	8%	13%	18%	52%	4%	100%

Respondents were most likely to be within the 60 or over age group (52% of individual respondents). Overall, the proportion of respondents within each age group fell as age decreased, with only 1% of respondents in either the 16 to 18 or 19 to 21 age brackets.

Although the number of respondents in the younger age groups is low, the analysis did consider whether the perspectives of younger people (in this case the eight respondents who identified themselves as being aged 34 years or younger), was broadly in line with respondents overall. There was nothing to suggest that the views of younger people differed from those in older age groups in any substantive way. This included for the four respondents in the younger age groups who also identified themselves as living on an island.

Responses for individual respondents are set out in Table 4 below.

Table 4: Responses by health or disability status

Respondent	Yes, limited a lot	Yes, limited a little	No	Prefer not to say	Total
Individuals	20	6	101	7	134
% of individuals	15%	4%	75%	5%	99%

Although the majority of individual respondents (75% of those answering the question) said their day-to-day activities were not limited because of a health problem or disability, 4% reported that they were limited a little and 15% that they were limited a lot.

Responses by respondent type are set out in Table 5 below.

Table 5: What do you mainly use the ferry services for?

Respondent	For Business	For Work/ Education	For Personal/ Leisure	All of the above
Community Council, Development Trust or Transport Forum	4	0	3	5
Energy related business or group	1	0	2	2
Ferry Board, Committee or Group	1	0	1	4
Local Authority, RTP or CPP	0	0	0	0
Port or harbour authority	1	0	1	0
Public Body	0	0	0	0
Third sector or campaign group	0	0	0	0
Tourism organisation or business	0	0	1	0
Trade Union	0	0	0	0
Other private sector business or group	0	0	1	0
Total organisations	7	0	9	11
% of organisations	30%	0%	39%	48%
Individuals	21	11	93	35
% of individuals	15%	8%	68%	26%
All respondents	28	11	102	46
% of all respondents	18%	7%	64%	29%

It was possible to select more than one option at this question and percentages are given as a proportion of the number of respondents who selected at least one option rather than the total number of options chosen (for Organisations n = 23, Individuals n = 136, and All respondents = 159). As a result, percentages do not sum to 100%.

Overall, the most frequently chosen option was using ferries for personal/leisure purposes at 64%. While individual respondents were most likely to use ferries for personal/leisure purposes (68%), organisational respondents were most likely to indicate ferry use for all purposes (48%).

Responses by respondent type are set out in Table 6 below.

Table 6: Frequency of use

Respondent	Weekly	Monthly	Occasion-ally	Seasonally (Summer period)	Total
Community Council, Development Trust or Transport Forum	4	2	1	0	7
Energy related business or group	2	0	1	0	3
Ferry board, committee or group	2	0	2	0	4
Local Authority, RTP or CPP	0	0	0	0	0
Port or harbour authority	0	0	1	0	1
Public Body	1	0	0	0	1
Third sector or campaign group	1	0	0	0	1
Tourism organisation or business	1	1	1	0	3
Trade Union	0	0	0	0	0
Other private sector business or group	2	1	0	0	3
Total organisations	13	4	6	0	23
% of organisations	57%	17%	26%	0%	100%
Individuals	37	58	32	8	135
% of individuals	27%	43%	24%	6%	100%
All respondents	50	62	38	8	158
% of all respondents	32%	39%	24%	5%	100%

Overall, respondents were most likely to use ferry services on a monthly basis, (39% of those answering the question) followed by weekly use (32% of those answering). Organisational respondents were most likely to use ferry services on a weekly basis, while monthly use was most frequent for Individuals.