Chamber and committees

Public Participation Inquiry

Background

We have launched an inquiry into how people’s voices are heard in the work of the Parliament. 

The Parliament wants to hear from people from across Scotland particularly when it develops new laws or policies that affect them. 

This is important because just now we know that the Parliament doesn’t 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.

Our inquiry started with us 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. 

Find out what people said

A a summary document has been created, including translated copies available in Arabic, Gaelic, Polish, Ukrainian and Urdu.

Read the summary documents

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. 

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).

Next steps

The Committee will make recommendations on what we need to do to make it easier for people to engage and to make sure everyone’s voice is heard and included in the work of the Parliament. We expect to share our report in May 2023.