Since the Commission on Parliamentary Reform reported in 2017, the Scottish Parliament has been on a journey to increase public participation in its work. This has led to several deliberative democracy activities taking place, and a commitment to embedding deliberative practice.
Click here for a reminder of what deliberative democracy means.
Deliberative democracy is an approach which places deliberation on issues and the involvement of citizens central in the democratic process. This includes using methods which focus more on discussion and debate between the public and other stakeholders to reach a decision or agreement. A deliberative approach would typically involve smaller groups, and a recruitment process that aims to create a representative sample of a wider population. Examples of deliberative practice would include mini-publics, people’s panels or citizens’ assemblies. In the Scottish Parliament context, deliberative democracy compliments representative democracy – deliberative democracy processes are commissioned by committees of elected MSPs, and those committees can decide whether to accept or reject the recommendations of a deliberative panel.
The Parliament’s journey throughout recent years has been documented in activity reports, external evaluations, committee reports, SPICe blogs, and fellowships outputs. This shows not just the activities that have taken place, but the practical and political considerations of using deliberative democracy in a way which best serves both the Parliament and the public.
This blog brings the documents which tell our story together in one place for the first time, and will be updated with new publications until the end of the current parliamentary session in March 2026.
2018
March – the Citizens’ Jury on Land Management takes place.
July – Findings of the Citizens’ Jury on Land Management
September – External Evaluation report, by Stephen Elstub, Jayne Carrick & Zohreh Khoban (Newcastle University)
2019
May/June – Public Panels on Primary Care take place
July – Findings of public panels included in the Health and Sport Committee’s Report “What should Primary Care look like for the next generation“.
October – External Evaluation report, by Stephen Elstub, Jayne Carrick & Zohreh Khoba (Newcastle University)
2020
Because of the impacts of COVID-19, no deliberative activities took place in 2020.
2021
January/February – Citizen’s Panel on COVID-19 take place [note that as this took place virtually, there was no external evaluation for this panel]
February – Findings from Citizen’s Panel on COVID-19.
2021 was an election year, so a new Parliament formed in May. Soon after, the Public Petitions Committee became the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee (CPPPC). At the same time, the internal service to support public participation, the Committee Engagement Unit, grew, and became the Participation and Communities Team.
November – SPICe blog, Are citizens’ assemblies in Scotland “here to stay”? – SPICe Spotlight | Solas air SPICe
2022
June – The Citizens Participation and Public Petitions Committee launches an inquiry into Public Participation in the Scottish Parliament.
October/November – the Citizen’s Panel on Public Participation takes place.
October – SPICe blog, Turning the lens inwards – the Citizen Participation and Petitions Committee’s Public Participation Inquiry
December – Citizens Participation and Public Petitions Committee interim report, including the findings of the Citizen’s Panel on Public Participation
2023
January – SPICe blog, Recommending a more participatory future – the Citizen Participation and Petitions Committee’s Public Participation Inquiry
March – SPICe blog, A shopping list for Scottish Parliament citizens’ assemblies? – the Citizen Participation and Petitions Committee’s Public Participation Inquiry
September – the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee publishes its final report and recommendations. As part of this, it recommends that two pilot People’s Panels take place in 2024 to inform a blueprint for embedding deliberative democracy in the work of the Scottish Parliament.
September – External Evaluation Report of the Citizen’s Panel on Public Participation, by Professor Sabina Keston-Siebert, (University of Glasgow)
November – SPICe blog, Embedding Deliberative Democracy in a Participatory Parliament
November – SPICe fellowship output by Dr Adam Chalmers (University of Edinburgh), Guest blog: Tracking public engagement through the parliamentary process
2024
February/March – the People’s Panel on Climate Change takes place.
April – Findings of the People’s Panel on Climate Change.
April – SPICe fellowship report by Dr Ruth Lightbody (Glasgow Caledonian University), and SPICe blog – Guest blog: Connecting deliberative practices in Parliament with participation and community engagement – SPICe Spotlight | Solas air SPICe
October/November – the People’s Panel on Drug Deaths and Drug Harms takes place.
2025
January – Final report of the People’s Panel on Drug Deaths and Drug Harms.
January – SPICe guest blog, by Masters student placement Marie Bruyndonckx (University of Edinburgh) – Guest blog: How can the Scottish Parliament improve its public consultations? – SPICe Spotlight | Solas air SPICe
March – SPICe blog, Delivering a model for parliamentary scrutiny of climate change: a Climate Change People’s Panel – SPICe Spotlight | Solas air SPICe
April – External evaluation report of the two people’s panel which took place in 2024, by Inaki Goni and Elisabet Vives (University of Edinburgh), and SPICe Blog – Guest Blog: Continuously improving people’s panels at the Scottish Parliament – Lessons from our independent evaluation – SPICe Spotlight | Solas air SPICe
May – SPICe Fellowship report by Dr Cara Broadley, Glasgow School of Art, and SPICe blog, Guest Blog: Opening Up Scrutiny – Reflections on Creativity, Collaboration, and Evidence in The Scottish Parliament – SPICe Spotlight | Solas air SPICe
May – the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee report, A Blueprint for Participation: Embedding deliberative democracy in the work of the Scottish Parliament, includes its final recommendations.
May – SPICe blog: Deliberative democracy in the Scottish Parliament – do we have the answers? – SPICe Spotlight | Solas air SPICe
June – SPICe guest blog giving interim findings on a SPICe fellowship with Dr Clementine Hill O’Connor (University of Glasgow): Guest blog: Where does lived experience sit in the work of the Parliament? – SPICe Spotlight | Solas air SPICe
November – SPICe Fellowship briefing by Dr Clementine Hill O’Connor (University of Glasgow) on the use of lived experience in Scottish Parliament scrutiny, accompanied by a volume of three case studies and a summary blog.
December – SPICe blog which gives an overview of work done to involve citizens in Budget scrutiny, and shares the experience of two people who took part in deliberative work with the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee: The people’s perspective on citizen participation in budget scrutiny – SPICe Spotlight | Solas air SPICe