The Scottish Parliament

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“Legislation is not solely a thing that government does and the rest observe.” Earlier this week, the Standards Procedures and Public Appointments Committee began taking evidence on its inquiry on committee effectiveness. This is looking at how committees work and whether there are things which could help them work better. The panel heard from former BBC Editor Brian Taylor about what more committees could be doing and their role in making legislation. Find out more about the Committee’s work and have your say: https://ow.ly/BMYc50VmkES #PublicPolicy #Legislation #CommitteeWork #PolicyMaking

The votes are in! 🗳 Thank you to everyone who took part in our Canongate Wall competition – these are the winning words by Liz Lochhead, Jackie Kay and Kathleen Jamie ⤵ We're off to get these lovely quotes carved into stone. Updates to follow! Read more about the design of the wall on our website: https://ow.ly/2l2R50VkCeQ

How can we make sure that the Parliament’s committees are working as effectively as possible?   Should we have elected Conveners? Should we change the size of committees?   What else could we do to improve how committees work?   Read the article by Martin Whitfield MSP below and you can share your views at https://ow.ly/AO8C50ViVbh

Thanks to everyone who voted in our Canongate Wall competition! The winning quotations will be announced next week. In the meantime, here's the wall's designer, Soraya Smithson, talking about what inspired the Parliament's chief architect, Eric Miralles, during the construction of the building.

💜✨ This #InternationalWomensDay, over 300 women gathered at the Scottish Parliament for an inspiring event with the Scottish Women's Convention. From powerful speeches to uplifting performances, the day was a celebration of women’s achievements and a call for change. #IWD2025 Watch the full highlights on SPTV: https://ow.ly/1A8F50ViaGg

How is civil legal assistance is working in Scotland? If you have professional experience of civil legal assistance, we want to hear from you.   Civil justice issues encompass disputes about rights and responsibilities, including housing, relationships, and social security matters.   Civil legal assistance, accessible via Civil Legal Aid and Advice and Assistance for civil justice issues, performs an important role in providing people with access to support to help resolve civil justice issues.   This session the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee has heard concerns about access to civil legal assistance raised by The Law Society of Scotland, Citizens Advice Scotland, Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, JustRight Scotland, Legal Services Agency, Diversity Plus+ and Shelter.   In response to these concerns the Committee has launched a call for views.   It wants to understand what is working and not working within the current civil legal aid system. It also wants to understand what changes could be made in the short and longer term to address access issues.   The Committee is particularly keen to hear from: - solicitors who provide, or have provided, civil legal assistance - organisations providing advice on civil justice issues, or campaigning on access to justice issues - people who have experience of accessing advice on civil justice issues, or using civil legal assistance - organisations which provide support to people who may need to access civil legal assistance - professional and public bodies working in this sector   The Committee's call for views is open until Thursday 17 April 2025: https://lnkd.in/enAWX9PE

"I'm asking us to spend less than £200 million a year on supporting people with addiction problems." Douglas Ross spoke to the Finance Committee this week about his Members' Bill 'Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill'. You can read more about the Bill at https://ow.ly/zyTi50Vgvyi

This week the Scottish Parliament launched a pilot of Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) – a new approach to help us access research expertise to inform our scrutiny work. The pilot focuses on supporting scrutiny of the next Draft Climate Change Plan - expected to be considered by the Scottish Parliament later in 2025. The contents of the Draft Climate Change Plan will straddle the remit of multiple Committees in the Scottish Parliament, and a diverse range of research expertise will be highly relevant. As well as detailing a set of measures to cut emissions in a range of sectors (e.g. energy, transport, agriculture), the Plan is also required to provide information on the costs and benefits of policies and implications for supporting a just transition. We’re initially piloting two ARIs to reach out to academics who have expertise they can share on: • climate emissions from waste management & resource use • regional & sectoral employment implications of a Just Transition More details are available at: https://ow.ly/haua50VfHtv The Scottish Parliament plans to use the responses received to identify research, expertise and contacts relevant to specific scrutiny topics in the Parliament. The information could be used to: • inform questions or issues that a Scottish Parliament Committee considers as part of any inquiry, • inform research briefings prepared by SPICe and used to support parliamentary scrutiny, • identify potential expert witnesses. In developing the pilot we have drawn on the experience of the Senedd and POST, UK Parliament who have used ARIs successfully to strengthen their ability to access research expertise and diversify contributors. The ARI work is being undertaken as part of a partnership, funded by ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council, with The University of Edinburgh as host institution, and the University of Glasgow, the University of Strathclyde and the University of Stirling, who all hold an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA). The work is part of a package of work to develop a model for parliamentary scrutiny of #ClimateChange (You can read more about this in a Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) blog here: https://ow.ly/zIFT50VfI9c), and sits within the wider Scottish Parliament academic engagement programme. #ScottishParliament #ResearchExpertise #ClimateAction #SustainableDevelopment #EnvironmentalPolicy #AcademicEngagement #ScrutinyWork

'If I ever wanted to do something, I would always find a way.' 💪 Paralympian Kayleigh Brown shared her journey into sport with MSPs at today's Time for Reflection.