Judge has purpose in period for public consultations (9)
I believe the answer is:
referenda
'public consultations' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'judge has purpose in period' is the wordplay.
'judge' becomes 'ref' (referee).
'has' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'purpose' becomes 'end' (both can mean a goal).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'period' becomes 'era' (era is a kind of period).
'end' placed inside 'era' is 'erenda'.
'ref'+'erenda'='REFERENDA'
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for referenda that I've seen before include "decisions for people" , "National ballots on specific issues" , "submissions to people" , "Votes put to country generally 9)" , "National polls as for amendments of constitution" .)