This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Putting the public back into public policy-making
10/02/2005
A new survey asking people how much they know about elected representatives, how often they deal with them and whether they want more say was launched today.
Commissioned by the Executive, the MORI survey aims to help improve public participation in policy making.
At the same time, the Executive is gathering information on how people are currently involved in policy making and on what the SE is doing to promote participation more widely.
And following a meeting with the Scottish Civic Forum today, Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Business Tavish Scott also announced a grant of £100,000 for the organisation. He said that the Executive wanted to bring more organisations into this field alongside the SCF to encourage sharper and more creative ways to engage with the public.
He said: "We spend a great deal of time and money on communicating with the public and seeking their views on what we do. It is vital that we hit the target, and make the best possible use of public money.
"Speaking to organisations and interest groups is an important part of the process. But I also want to see us getting beyond those and talking to Scots who aren't members of a particular organisation.
"Our recent consultation on smoking in public places was a great success: over 53,000 responses, from all walks of life. If we're to get close to repeating that kind of success, we need to do much more.
"First we need to find out what people want and need from us. Then we need to see how well we are meeting those needs. The research represents an important step in addressing these issues.
"Only then can we move forward to call for new and interesting ways to grab people's attention and get them involved in the democratic process."
The three strands to the announcement are:
Public attitudes to participation. As part of their wider quarterly Scottish Social Survey, MORI will be asking questions such as knowledge of different elected representatives and how people currently communicate with Government, interest in participating and preferred ways of participating.
Public participation activity in the Scottish Executive. This study, carried out by The Research Shop, will provide a comprehensive picture of what the SE is doing currently to engage with people and what they are doing to promote civic participation more generally, and will contribute to how work in this area develops in the future
Scottish Executive diversifies its approach to civic participation . The Executive wishes to broaden the way it engages with people and wishes to develop its links with a range of organisations with skills and experience in this area. Since 1999, the Executive has provided over £1,000,000 of support to establish the Scottish Civic Forum. Ministers today announced a further grant of £100,000 to enable the Forum to realign itself to this new environment and to be able to compete to conduct further specific participation activities.
The Executive has taken forward its commitment to the principle of civic participation in a number of different ways. Examples include:
- promoting citizenship education in schools;
- supporting volunteering and the voluntary sector;
- promoting community engagement locally in Community Planning Partnerships;
- supporting grassroots capacity-building through the Community Learning and Development strategy;
- increased opportunities for civic participation in SE policy-making processes; and
- promotion of good practice in consultations.
The MORI survey into public attitudes to participation will run to April 2005, and costs £11,750 (exc VAT). The Research Shop study of public participation activity in the Scottish Executive will run to March 2005, and costs £14,530 (exc VAT).