Following the election on 6 May, the new parliamentary session will kick off in earnest this week. The Parliament’s website sets out what these first days will look like. SPICe would like to welcome all new and returning Members, and their staff, to the Parliament.
As we wrote back at the end of March, over the campaign recess period, SPICe researchers and information specialists have been working on a wide range of briefings, blogs and more to help inform the new Parliament. This blog provides a short update of what to expect, and when.
Fact sheets
First, over the weekend the Enquiries and Collections Team worked hard to make sure the names of all 129 MSPs were on the Parliament’s website, and published some useful fact sheets on the new Members.
Key issues and election briefing
This week, we will publish two major briefings: first, on the election result and the make-up of the new Parliament.
Second, our Key issues for Session 6 briefing, subtitled “COVID, Climate and Constitution”, will be published later this week. As well as covering these three overarching themes, the briefing provides short, accessible pieces of analysis on 26 other issues for Session 6, across all major areas of devolved policy.
Constituency profiles
Next week, we aim to launch the first version of our new interactive “constituency profiles” – these will provide a range of statistical data on all 73 constituencies and 8 regions, to enable Members (and of course anyone else with an interest) to gain insights into the areas they represent.
COVID information – statistics and constituency support
Alongside these publications for the new Session, we will also update and refresh our regular COVID-19 blogs – on statistics on the spread of the virus and the vaccination programme, and on useful information for constituents. See our COVID-19 hub for details.
Subject profiles
Finally, throughout these first months of the new session, we will be publishing a wide range of “subject profiles” – these are deeper dives into the big policy areas, like the NHS, the budget and climate change.
We hope new Members, and all our other readers, find this material useful and interesting as the Parliament begins Session 6. Follow us on Twitter, https://twitter.com/SPICe_Research and sign up to alerts here on SPICe Spotlight to keep up to date with our work.
Allan Campbell, Head of Research and Financial Scrutiny