Commission on Parliamentary Reform

The Commission on Parliamentary Reform was an independent group, established in October 2016 by Ken Macintosh, the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament. It is chaired by John McCormick and published its report, with recommendations, on 20 June 2017.

Background

When the Scottish Parliament was set up in 1999, a Consultative Steering Group developed some of the parliamentary structures and procedures.[1] Changes in technology since the Parliament was formed have affected how civil society engages with it.[2] Macintosh’s predecessor Tricia Marwick had also tried to look at how the parliament functioned.[3]

Remit and schedule

The Commission was asked to consider how the Parliament scrutinises legislation, how the committee system functions and the extent of the parliament's independence from the Scottish government.[4]

The commission met for first time on 7 November 2016.[5] In January the committee took evidence from two former Labour First Ministers Jack McConnell and Henry McLeish.[6] The Commission will publish its report, with recommendations to the Presiding Officer, on Tuesday 20 June 2017 at 10.00 am.[7]

Commission membership

John McCormick was announced as chair, ahead of his retirement from the Electoral Commissioner for Scotland in December 2016.[8]

Other members of the commission were:

The commission had support from all the party leaders in the Scottish Parliament.[1] The members nominated by their parties to sit on the commission are:[9]

Recommendations

There were recommendations around the effective use of chamber time, included ceasing the practice of using scripted diary questions from party leaders to open First Minister's Questions (FMQs). The report suggested scrapping the requirement for selected questions to be published ahead of the session and granting the Presiding Officer the power to rule out questions "which do other than seek to genuinely scrutinise the minister".[10][11]

gollark: What kind of superintelligent magic computer box™ only helps something like one person per episode by using foolish humans to do stuff?
gollark: It isn't very good at its job, really.
gollark: It's fine as long as my gender is never instantiated or imagined.
gollark: Well, GTech™ offers gender consultancy services including development of bespoke gender software in a variety of languages.
gollark: What if my gender is connected to the Internet?

References
  1. "Commission set up to tackle "tribal" Scottish Parliament". The Scotsman. 26 October 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  2. Syme, Martin (4 November 2016). "The Commission on Parliamentary Reform is a poorly conceived way to review parliamentary democracy". Holyrood. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  3. Gordon, Tom (29 October 2016). "Commission on Holyrood reforms needs to think bigger". The Herald. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  4. "Independent review of Scottish Parliament systems". BBC News. 26 October 2016.
  5. "Parliamentary Reform inquiry aims to produce 'challenging proposals'". The Herald. 7 November 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  6. "Former first ministers call for 'radical' change at Holyrood". BBC News. 16 January 2017.
  7. "Independent commission set to recommend Holyrood reforms". BBC News. 20 June 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  8. Sanderson, Daniel (26 October 2016). "New bid for Holyrood reform launched by presiding officer". The Herald. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  9. "Presiding Officer names Parliament reform commission members". The Journal. Law Society of Scotland. 2 November 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  10. Webster, Catriona (20 June 2017). "Report proposes sweeping reforms of Scottish Parliament". The Scotsman. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  11. "Leader comment: Holyrood overhaul long overdue". The Scotsman. 21 June 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
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