Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Public Participation Inquiry
Background
In Spring 2022 we launched an inquiry into how people’s voices are heard in the work of the Parliament.
The Parliament aims to hear from people from across Scotland particularly when it develops new laws or policies that affect them.
This is important because we know that the Parliament doesn’t always hear from some groups or communities. We want to make sure that the views and opinions of everyone in Scotland are included in the work of the Parliament.
Read our Report
View this video to hear the Committee Convener, Jackson Carlaw MSP, outline what the Report is about:
Watch the launch video
You can read the Committee’s full report, or a shorter summary version, by following the links below:
Read the full report
The summary version is also available in a range of other languages, partly to reflect the range of people who engaged with us during the inquiry. Short summaries in BSL and EasyRead are also available below.
Summary report: Gaelic (141KB, pdf) (141KB, pdf) posted 11 September 2023
Summary report: Polish (187KB, pdf) (187KB, pdf) posted 11 September 2023
Summary report: Turkish (187KB, pdf) (187KB, pdf) posted 11 September 2023
Summary report: Ukrainian (187KB, pdf) (187KB, pdf) posted 11 September 2023
Summary report: Arabic (274KB, pdf) (274KB, pdf) posted 11 September 2023
Summary report: Urdu (265KB, pdf) (265KB, pdf) posted 11 September 2023
EasyRead booklet (4MB, pdf) (4MB, pdf) posted 11 September 2023
Inquiry Process
Our inquiry started with hearing from participation experts and then consulting with people across Scotland. We heard from 460 people and organisations who told us what improvements they would like to see to make engaging with the Parliament easier.
A summary document has been created, including translated copies available in Arabic, Gaelic, Polish, Ukrainian and Urdu.
We then set up a Citizens' Panel of 19 people from across Scotland to make suggestions as to how improvements can be made. They reported to the Parliament in December 2022.
Find out what the Citizen's Panel said
The Committee published its interim report setting out the key issues and recommendations of the Citizens Panel on 16 December 2022.
Read the Committee’s interim report
Between December 2022 and February 2023, the Committee asked for views on the recommendations of the Citizens' Panel on the Parliament's Your Priorities platform. A document has been created to summarise the evidence gathered through this consultation.
Read the SPICe summary of evidence here. (549.4KB, pdf) (549KB, pdf) posted 16 March 2023
.In February and March 2023, Committee members visited Dublin and Paris, to learn more about how deliberative democracy is used in Ireland and by the Paris City Council. Committee members also met virtually with representatives from the French-speaking Parliament in Brussels to discuss how their model of deliberative democracy has evolved.
In June 2023, the Committee considered and agreed a draft report, for publication in September 2023.
In August 2023, an independent evaluation of the Citizens’ Panel process was provided by Professor Sabina Siebert (Glasgow University).
Read the evaluation report (135KB, pdf) (135KB, pdf) posted 12 September 2023
Next steps
The report will be debated in the Parliament’s debating chamber on Thursday 26 October.
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