Review of petitions at the Scottish Parliament

Partly to mark 10 years of operation, the Scottish Parliament has today published the report of a year long inquiry by the Public Petitions Committee into the public petitions process (html only – no PDF that I can see).

This inquiry looked at how to improve awareness of the existence of the public petitions process, particularly amongst hard to reach groups; participation in the process itself; and the scrutiny role fulfilled by the Committee. Too many observations and recommendations to summarise right now…

At the same time, the petitions committee has set up a new blogspot blog and produced a new petitions DVD

I’d recommend taking 8 minutes to watch this excellent video on the blog (sadly it’s in Windows Media format). It explains how the petitioning process works from petitioners’ and politicians’ viewpoints and has some nice stories about how this form of petitioning increases engagement with politics.

Overall, a real step forward I think, with the introduction of video, blogging and other Web2.0 technologies by the Scottish Parliament’s petitions committee.

Finally – see how they emphasise that its petitions they’re interested in – e-petitions are treated as just another route to get your voice heard. The right approach, I think.