Public Participation at the Scottish Parliament (Detailed)
Published responses
View submitted responses where consent has been given to publish the response.
Overview
What we’re doing
We want to make sure that the Scottish Parliament’s work involves, reflects and meets the needs of the full range of communities it represents.
We know that some people are more closely involved in our work than others.
By being involved, we mean people sharing views in writing, online or in person, starting a petition or talking to MSPs about an issue that’s important to them.
Some people never become involved in our work.
We want to understand:
- why that is the case; and
- what we can do to make sure that the Scottish Parliament engages with everyone in a way that works for them.
Who do we want to hear from?
We want to hear from individuals organisations from a wide range of communities across Scotland.
By communities, we mean not only people living in a particular area, but also other types of communities (e.g. individuals or groups with a particular interest).
We want to find out how you would prefer to share your views with the Scottish Parliament and/or raise issues which are important to you.
We want to hear from everyone. However, we would particularly welcome hearing from communities that we know are under-represented in our work at the moment. This includes people from minority ethnic groups, people living on a low income and disabled people.
We recognise that within each community, there will be a wide range of individuals with different needs and preferences and so we will make sure we gather views in different ways to take account of that.
Detailed consultation
If you are responding to this survey on behalf of a community group or organisation, then please complete this more detailed consultation.
The questions are very similar to the shorter survey, but this has more space to tell us what you think.
The answers you provide will be published on our webpage with your organisation name, unless you tell us you would like to remain anonymous.
1. In your experience, which group/s are currently under-represented in the work of the Scottish Parliament and why do you think this?
2. What could the Scottish Parliament do to make it easier for these groups to be involved in the Parliament’s work?
3. Is there anything the Parliament is currently doing that you think would discourage people from these groups working with us? If so, how do we need to change?
4. What should we do to make sure that the people involved in the Parliament’s work are more diverse and reflect the wide range of communities we represent?
5. Thinking about the groups you have identified as being under-represented in our work, are you aware of any good examples of organisations working in a creative/supportive way to hear the views of these groups? If so, can you tell us more about what this involved?
6. Are there other ways we can involve these groups in the work of the Parliament? What are they and when should we use them?
7. We want to involve under-represented communities in designing improvements to the way that we work. In your view, how can we best do this?
8. Which networks should we connect with to make sure we reach people in the under-represented groups you’ve highlighted?
9. To make sure that the groups you’ve identified are involved in the Parliament’s work from now on, which changes should we prioritise (do first)?
10. How will we know if we have been successful?
Interests
- CPPP