About committees

Committees are small groups of Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) who look at specific subjects such as health, education and justice. Committees normally have between 5 and 15 members. Committee members come from different political parties. The number of committee members from each party depends on how many seats that party has in the Parliament.

Committees:

hold the Scottish Government to account
hold inquiries
examine bills (proposed laws) and decide on amendments (changes)
introduce their own bills
consider petitions suggested by the public

Committees have a remit which says what areas they are responsible for. Committees can look at anything in their remit.

Current and previous committees

Read detailed guidance on how committees operate in practice

Most committees meet weekly or every second week, usually on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday morning. Committees usually meet in a committee room at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. They can also decide to meet in other places around Scotland.

Committees:

hold inquiries
look at legislation, including bills and subordinate legislation
hear the views of people to help with their inquiries and recommendations
look at the work of the Scottish Government, including plans for how money is spent
consider petitions submitted by members of the public and groups who want to raise an issue

Inquiries

Inquiries are a way for committees to gather information and examine an issue. Committees choose inquiry topics for different reasons. Some are a response to a high profile event, like the delivery of a public service or project. Others consider progress in an area, for example schools or policing.

What happens in an inquiry?

During an inquiry a committee will usually:

ask individuals and organisations for their views
examine the views it gets
hold evidence sessions where they question members of the public, organisations and experts
visit organisations, companies and communities to get a deeper understanding of the inquiry topic

What do committees do with the information they receive?

The committee usually produces a report which is published on the Parliament website. The report makes recommendations to the Scottish Government and other public bodies. The Scottish Government must respond to the committee's recommendations, saying if they agree or not.

Bills

Committees have an important role in examining bills. Most bills are referred to a "lead committee" at Stage 1. The lead committee is responsible for examining a bill closely. It hears from experts, organisations, and members of the public about what the bill would do. It then writes a report about what it has heard setting out its view on the purpose of the bill (the "general principles").

The whole Parliament then debates and decides on the general principles of the bill.

If the Parliament agrees the bill's general principles, the bill goes back to a committee for Stage 2. This involves the committee looking at changes to the bill. These are called "amendments". Any MSP can suggest an amendment, but only committee members can vote on them at this stage.

Find out more about the stages of a bill

Subordinate legislation

Committees often look at subordinate legislation. Subordinate legislation can also be called:

secondary legislation
regulations
SSIs (Scottish Statutory Instruments)

A special committee (the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee) also looks at 'delegated powers' in bills. These include powers to make subordinate legislation.

What does subordinate legislation do?

Subordinate legislation can:

give more information about how a law will operate
be used to say when parts of a new Act come into force (when a bill becomes an Act, it doesn't always come into force straight away)
keep existing laws up to date

Petitions

Anyone can send a petition to the Scottish Parliament to try to change something about how things work in Scotland. Petitions are first looked at by the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee.

The Committee might:

get information from the Scottish Government and other organisations
hear more from the person or people who submitted the petition (“the petitioner”)
make recommendations to the Scottish Government
ask for time in the Chamber to debate the petition
send (“refer”) the petition to another committee to look at it further
close the petition

Find out more about the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee

Budget

Every year the Scottish Government plans how it will spend money by creating a budget. The Finance and Public Administration Committee looks at the budget as a whole. Other committees are responsible for examining the budgets for their subject areas. They can do this by:

looking at how the Scottish Government has used money, and how it plans to spend money in the future
sending reports or letters to the Scottish Government before it publishes the budget, to help their thinking about the budget
examining the Budget Bill and questioning ministers about it
putting forward their own suggestions if they don’t agree with the Scottish Government’s spending plans

Most committees are formed after a Scottish Parliament election and last for the whole 5-year session. A few committees are formed later, sometimes just for a shorter period.

The Scottish Parliament has some committees that must always exist. These are called "mandatory committees" and include committees like Finance, and Public Audit.

Other committees are called "subject committees". They are formed to look at issues or topics, like:

health
education
justice

Conveners

A convener is responsible for organising and chairing committee meetings. The number of convener roles each party gets is based on the number of seats they have in the Parliament.

How are committee members and conveners chosen?

Parties choose which of their MSPs they would like to represent them on a committee. The members of a committee are agreed by the Parliament.

The Parliament agrees the political party of the convener and deputy convener. Committees choose their convener and deputy conveners at their first meeting. Sometimes conveners and deputy conveners change later in the session.

The number of members a party has on a committee reflects their share of seats in the Parliament.

Convener and Deputy Convener

A convener:

chairs committee meetings
speaks on behalf of the committee
agrees agendas for committee meetings

The deputy convener takes on the convener’s responsibilities when the convener is not available.

Committee members

All committee members, including the convener and deputy convener:

help decide on the committee's work programme
ask witnesses (members of the public, organisations, or experts) questions in committee meetings
contribute to and agree committee reports and other documents

Committees are responsible for looking at work in their remit. This includes holding inquiries and examining bills (proposed laws). They also look at the Scottish Government's work to see what it has planned and what it has already done.

The committee can hold the Scottish Government to account by:

publishing reports with recommendations that the Scottish Government must respond to
holding debates in the Chamber with ministers and other MSPs

Committees can also:

ask the Scottish Government for information
ask ministers and civil servants to answer questions in person

External organisations and people can’t become members of committees, which are made up of MSPs, but they can become members of Cross-Party Groups (CPGs). CPGs meet to discuss a shared interest in a cause or subject. CPGs are made up of:

organisations
members of the public
MSPs from all parties

To form a CPG, an MSP must:

agree to create one
find out if there’s enough interest in the group from other MSPs
hold a first meeting
have the approval of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee to form

CPGs are not part of the Parliament's formal business and shouldn’t be confused with the Parliament’s committee system. They do not have the power to formally ask the Parliament or the Government to consider issues.

Find out more about Cross-Party Groups

You or your organisation can get involved in a committee's work by:

giving your views on a bill (a proposed new law)
contributing to an inquiry
submitting a petition

All committees can carry out inquiries into any subject in their remits (area of responsibility).

Call for views

When a committee launches an inquiry, or starts looking at a bill, it invites people to submit their views. This is called a "call for views". It's important to note that the committee are not running an opinion poll.

The committee bases any assessment of public opinion on published data from opinion polls. As responses to a call for views are self-selecting, they cannot be assumed to be representative of public opinion and are not treated as such.

Anyone can submit their views. Committees want to hear from organisations and experts, but also from individuals whose views are informed by personal experience

Views are normally submitted in writing, but can also be submitted as a short video. The Parliament welcomes submissions in any language, including BSL.

Search for calls for views

How to give your views to a committee as a BSL video

What happens after you submit your views?

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) will prepare a summary and analysis of responses to the call for views.

If we receive a very high volume of submissions, this may need to be prepared on the basis of a sample of submissions.

Your views will usually be published on the Scottish Parliament’s website.

What you tell a committee may also be quoted in its reports or in its meetings. These meetings are held in public and broadcast online on the Scottish Parliament TV website.

More information about what happens to what you send to a committee and how it uses your information

Witnesses

Committees often invite organisations and individuals to attend committee meetings and answer questions. These people are called "witnesses". The public can watch in person or online, or read what witnesses said in the Parliament's "Official Report", published a few days later.

Find out more about what happens when you're a witness at a committee