“We propose that committees should be encouraged
to meet and take evidence outside Edinburgh, particularly
when the subject matter might affect people living in a
particular area of Scotland, and that in a number of cases
committees should have their permanent base somewhere
other than Edinburgh.”
- Consultative Steering Group, ‘Shaping Scotland’s Parliament’
(1999: 10)
When it convened in Inverness in October 1999, the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning
Committee became the first committee of the new, devolved, 129-member Scottish
Parliament to meet outside Edinburgh and clearly its aim was not to try and spot the Loch
Ness monster!
The committee was briefed in the Highlands’ capital by the development
organisation Commun na Gaidhlig, which in turn became the first body to give evidence
in Gaelic to a Scottish parliamentary committee.
In the six years of the Scottish
Parliament since the Inverness meeting, the number of formal committee meetings held
outside Edinburgh has exceeded seventy. Most recently, in June 2005, the Environment
and Rural Development Committee met in Brechin to hear views on economic
development in “accessible rural areas”.
The same month the Public Petitions
Committee held a formal committee meeting in Ayr to promote the committee,
“especially to people who traditionally have not been involved in the political process”.
The architects of the Scottish Parliament in the Consultative Steering Group (CSG) set
out several reasons for committees to meet in locations away from the capital city. It
would improve public access to parliament’s work. People in all parts of Scotland would
be able to see how their parliamentarians (MSPs) conducted business and could interact
with them. Above all, the practice of convening meetings and other forms of committee
activity outside Edinburgh was viewed as consonant with the fundamental CSG principle
of sharing the power and overcoming the alienation, which was seen as a by-product of a
remote House of Commons in Westminster. (CSG 1999: 103) In short, it was hoped it
would reduce both the ‘democratic deficit’ and the ‘influence deficit’.
1
In a real sense, Scotland has two parliaments since 59 (before the 2005 British general election, 73) MPs
represent Scotland in the House of Commons in London.
2
Only about 50,000 persons now speak Gaelic – half the number of thirty years ago – although there have
been eight plenary debates in which 28 whole speeches have been made in Gaelic since the inception of the
devolved parliament in 1999. All but one – on shinty – have related to the Gaelic language and Gaelic-
medium education. I am grateful to Shona Skakle in the Scottish Parliament Information Service (SPICE)
for these figures.
3
The official Scottish Executive (Government) definition of “accessible rural areas” is settlements of less
than three thousand people situated within thirty minutes drive time of the nearest settlement of over ten
thousand inhabitants.
4
The Petitions Committee is one of the eight mandatory committees of the Scottish Parliament. Since 1999,
875 petitions have been lodged with the committee. 767 are closed (have been dealt with) and there are 108
open petitions.
2
Convention