Institutionalising Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Working Group (Recommendations)

– in the Scottish Parliament at on 23 November 2022.

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Photo of Alex Rowley Alex Rowley Labour

6. To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on implementing the recommendations of the institutionalising participatory and deliberative democracy working group published in March. (S6O-01578)

Photo of George Adam George Adam Scottish National Party

In the most recent programme for government, we committed to publishing a response to the report of our working group on institutionalising participatory and deliberative democracy. That will set out how we can involve people and communities, government and children and young people in democratic decision making. We are in the process of carefully considering that further, assessing the new activities and skills that would make it a success, and taking account of the resource demands that that would create.

Photo of Alex Rowley Alex Rowley Labour

I read the report, and the question is, what happens next? People need to know that.

The minister mentioned the recent programme for government, but the 2021 programme for government stated:

“We are committed to reforming Council Tax to make it fairer, working with the Scottish Green Party and COSLA to oversee the development of effective deliberative engagement on sources of local government funding, including Council Tax, that will culminate in a Citizens’ Assembly.”

There are controversial issues around drugs policy, the raising of extra funds and a lot of other things that a citizens assembly would certainly be able to grapple with in a way that would bring forward the views of people and communities. When are we likely to see some announcements on the issue?

Photo of George Adam George Adam Scottish National Party

I should cut to the chase and say to Mr Rowley that we are probably going to write a response to the IPPD working group’s report before the end of this year. For all of us, that will be the start of our opportunity to consider the issue and move things forward.

As always, I am happy to work with Mr Rowley and meet him to discuss many of the issues, but I can say that the Government is committed to finding a way to move forward with council tax. We have various other options and participatory groups that are available for people to engage with. It might be a good idea for Mr Rowley and me to have an offline meeting in which we can discuss these issues further.