Reading Time: 10 minutesThe Care Reform (Scotland) Bill started life as the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill in 2022. This blog will provide some background to the passage
Category: Parliament & Government
Deliberative democracy in the Scottish Parliament – do we have the answers?
Reading Time: 9 minuteshis blog gives an update on work to develop an approach to embedding deliberative democracy in the work of the Scottish Parliament, and looks back to see if some of the fundamental questions raised in earlier SPICe blogs have been answered.
The Scottish Parliament’s deliberative democracy timeline
Reading Time: 4 minutesThis timeline blog lists reports, briefings, blogs and other publications which relate to deliberative democracy in the Scottish Parliament from 2017 onwards, and will be updated with new publications until the end of the current parliamentary session in March 2026.
Second homes in Scotland – facts, figures and policy
Reading Time: 6 minutesThis blog considers the number of second homes in Scotland and the policy measures that affect them (and provides an update to a previous blog
The Final Countdown to election 2026: Programme for Government 2025-26 – Building the Best Future for Scotland
Reading Time: 26 minutesThis extended, long-read blogpost provides a summary of the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2025-26 and highlights areas that are likely to be of particular interest to MSPs and the Parliament over the next year.
Assimilated law reform and the Scottish Government’s EU alignment policy
Reading Time: 6 minutesHow do changes that are being made to retained EU law relate to the Scottish Government’s EU alignment policy?
Assimilated EU law reform: Where does Scotland stand in early 2025?
Reading Time: 4 minutesA look at recent updates from the UK and Scottish Governments on changes that are being made to retained EU law.
Guest Blog: Opening Up Scrutiny – Reflections on Creativity, Collaboration, and Evidence in The Scottish Parliament
Reading Time: 7 minutesThis guest blog sets out the findings of a SPICe fellowship project with Dr Cara Broadley, Glasgow School of Art, who used an immersive Participation Action Research approach to explore how creative, participatory and visual approaches can enhance public involvement and the effectiveness of evidence in scrutiny. Cara’s full research report is embedded and downloadable from this blog.
Intergovernmental activity update: Q1 2025
Reading Time: < 1 minuteSPICe has published a new quarterly intergovernmental activity update, which covers quarter 1 (January to March) of 2025.
Guest Blog: Continuously improving people’s panels at the Scottish Parliament – Lessons from our independent evaluation
Reading Time: 6 minutesThis guest blog by Iñaki Goñi and Elisabet Vives (University of Edinburgh) summarises and builds on their external evaluation of the two People’s Panels run by the Parliament in 2025.