Committee
Equal Opportunities Committee, 12 Dec 2006
12 Dec 2006 · S2 · Equal Opportunities Committee
Item of business
Public Petitions Committee (Equalities Report)
We decided that we would go to each of the eight regions that are represented in the Scottish Parliament. In this session, we have managed to get to six of them. We learned lessons throughout the process. The first meeting was held in Dundee and it taught us a lot about the kinds of things that we needed to do to get to more organisations. The lessons that we have learned will form part of our legacy paper to next session's Public Petitions Committee. We do not think that, by any stretch of the imagination, the process is perfect yet. However, we have ensured that the guidance on how to submit a petition is available in a range of languages, including Arabic, Cantonese, Urdu, Bengali and Punjabi. The committee is working with the Parliament's equalities manager to promote that material in relevant communities. We have also produced a DVD, which has been circulated to a range of organisations and is available on request. We have tried to use the technology at our disposal to reach people.We have tried to get out of the Parliament physically. The communities that we have visited were not picked randomly. We thought that too many of the usual suspects were submitting petitions. It had become apparent that we were often faced with middle-class campaigning groups that knew how to use the system. We wanted to encourage community groups—from whatever community—to access the Parliament, and we did not assume that it would be sufficient just to tell people that we are here; we knew that we had to go into communities and show people how the system works. After every event that we held there was an increase in petitions from groups such as the ones that had taken part, so we have had some success. However, we are far from perfect and we have an awful lot more work to do.
In the same item of business
The Convener:
Lab
The fourth agenda item deals with the Public Petitions Committee's equalities report. I welcome Michael McMahon, the convener of the Public Petitions Committ...
Michael McMahon MSP (Convener, Public Petitions Committee):
Thank you for your warm words, convener. When I became the convener of the Public Petitions Committee, I made a commitment to use the lessons that I had lear...
The Convener:
Lab
Perhaps insisting that every member of the Parliament should spend at least some time on the Equal Opportunities Committee—like you did, Michael—might help p...
Michael McMahon:
Lab
The monitoring form is now issued as part of the initial submission process. When the petition is formally submitted—before it is considered by the committee...
The Convener:
Lab
I note that, as part of the feedback to your previous report, the Commission for Racial Equality expressed concern about the number of people who were prepar...
Michael McMahon:
Lab
We changed the wording of the form to accommodate the CRE's concerns. We had a poor response rate initially, which we think was down to the poor wording and ...
The Convener:
Lab
Excellent. I notice the suggestion in the Public Petitions Committee's report that the monitoring form should be sent out as part of the initial submission p...
Michael McMahon:
Lab
Yes. There are some resource implications with regard to collecting the information and the annual collating of the data is time consuming. However, if the p...
Elaine Smith (Coatbridge and Chryston) (Lab):
Lab
Does the form go out to the petitioner when the first inquiry is made? Do the petitioners receive it along with the form that they fill in when they submit a...
Michael McMahon:
Lab
David McGill will be able to answer your question in detail.
David McGill (Scottish Parliament Directorate of Clerking and Reporting):
The vast majority of petitioners approach us for advice before submitting a petition, which means that there is a bit of dialogue between the clerks and pote...
Elaine Smith:
Lab
Does that mean that the information is collected at the initial stage?
David McGill:
Yes. We believe that that is the best point at which to capture the information, as it enables us to get data from as many people as possible. That process h...
Elaine Smith:
Lab
Some people who make an initial inquiry to the committee might not follow the process through. Is there a way of capturing the details of those people? It wo...
David McGill:
We could consider that. There is nothing to prevent us from doing that.
Marlyn Glen:
Lab
You say that other committees should collect this information, but you also say that there would be resource implications. However, I presume that the resour...
Michael McMahon:
Lab
If a committee takes mainstreaming seriously, it should collect that information as a matter of course when it undertakes an inquiry. Anyone whom the committ...
The Convener:
Lab
It is about getting the process right and encouraging people to see it as a standard thing to do that makes a lot of sense. Obviously, feedback will identify...
Michael McMahon:
Lab
We have always tried to learn lessons from the data that we have examined. When we have done outreach work in local communities, we have relied on outside bo...
The Convener:
Lab
That is a good example to set other committees.
Marlyn Glen:
Lab
Your report notes that the CRE believes that there is a need for your committee to do more targeted outreach work to encourage people from ethnic minority ba...
Michael McMahon:
Lab
We decided that we would go to each of the eight regions that are represented in the Scottish Parliament. In this session, we have managed to get to six of t...
David McGill:
We have been in contact with the CRE since it said that we should do more to target people from ethnic minority backgrounds. The CRE supplied us with a list ...
Marlyn Glen:
Lab
Outreach work is time consuming and entails a great deal of work for members of the committee and clerks. What scope is there for maintaining or increasing t...
Michael McMahon:
Lab
There is no question that there are implications for our workload, but all the clerks who have worked on the committee feel passionately about the issue. It ...
Marlyn Glen:
Lab
Is the Public Petitions Committee frightened of becoming a victim of its own success? Will you address the issue in your legacy paper?
Michael McMahon:
Lab
We will have to point out the situation. The increased breadth of petitions that we wanted was obviously going to lead to more petitions being submitted. It ...
John Swinburne (Central Scotland) (SSCUP):
SSCUP
Feedback from the Disability Rights Commission suggested that the Public Petitions Committee has been successful in attracting a high level of participation ...
Michael McMahon:
Lab
Our 2005-06 report found that 25 per cent of petitioners had some form of disability. The proportion in the previous year was 17 per cent. The proportion of ...
John Swinburne:
SSCUP
I was privileged to represent a constituent at the Public Petitions Committee. The person was concerned about having to sell their parent's home to pay for c...