Official Report 296KB pdf
Our last item concerns a research proposal. It is anticipated that the 1,000th public petition will be lodged within the next six months. That significant milestone provides an opportunity to commission an independent review to assess the operation of the petitions system. The review will consider how well the petitions process works, take into account the views of petitioners on how their petition was handled and consider the impact of the petitions system as a means of engagement with the democratic process. The outcome of the review will help to inform the way in which the Public Petitions Committee and the subject committees deal with public petitions.
I am happy to support that. I am amazed that we have dealt with that many petitions. However, I would like to know whether we have any indication of what the project will cost and whether that will represent value for money.
The clerks can answer that.
The research proposal would go out to tender, so we would not want to pre-empt that process.
Assuming that the cost is reasonable, I would be happy to agree to the suggestion.
Other research projects of a similar size cost around £25,000 to £30,000.
Goodness.
It is not as much as it will cost to replace the bolt to fix the roof, John.
We get a lot of requests from the media and other organisations asking us to show that the petitions system is working. At the moment, we can argue from our perspective, but this proposal gives us an opportunity to get someone external to the Parliament to examine how the system has developed, what the outcomes have been, whether the petitions have been as successful as we would want them to be and what the experience of those who have come before us has been, which is as important an aspect as any.
In this regard, while we are making comparisons, we should all bear in mind that Paul Hutcheon of the Sunday Herald cost us nearly a quarter of a million pounds in freedom of information requests. Beside that, the cost of this piece of research is insignificant.
I am not going to challenge your information, Helen. That is an interesting way of putting the cost into context.
Meeting closed at 12:35.
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