e-democracy
On the Parliament's move to Holyrood, its webcasting service was redesigned and rebranded as www.holyrood.tv. With live coverage from the Chamber and all of Holyrood's committee rooms, plus an online archive of all these sessions, holyrood.tv is the most comprehensive parliamentary webcasting service in the world.
One particularly innovative aspect of this service is the online biographical films of MSPs. These were made by
the broadcasting office in conjunction with SPICe (Scottish Parliament Information Centre), and allow the public a chance to find out more about their representatives.
The website was also revised and redesigned this year to make it easier to navigate and more accessible. New features include enhanced MSP pages, improved content on how to engage with the Parliament, pages on the Holyrood building, and more information available in different languages.
Committees have also continued to build on their experience in this field. For example, the Enterprise and Culture Committee has produced an online questionnaire to collect views on its inquiry into Scottish football. The Environment and Rural Development Committee hosted an online discussion forum for its inquiry into climate change to capture the diverse views on the subject and to seek contributions from the general public as well as experts. The Local Government and Transport Committee hosted an online forum on the Licensing (Scotland) Bill.
The Public Petitions Committee has nominated the Parliament's e-petitions system for an eEurope award on eGovernment at the Ministerial eGovernment Conference that is being hosted jointly by the UK Presidency and the European Commission in Manchester in November 2005. The Parliament's innovative work in this area has also continued to attract interest from a number of other parliaments and legislatures. For example, the German Bundestag, following a visit to the Scottish Parliament, is piloting an e-petitions system based on the Scottish Parliament system for one year from May 2005. Similarly, following a visit to the Scottish Parliament, the New Brunswick Legislature in Canada's Commission on Legislative Democracy has recommended the introduction of an e-petitions system.
e-democracy is also about helping take the Parliament to local communities. Using video-conferencing facilities, the Outreach Service team organised a virtual surgery in Broughty Ferry in November 2004. A dozen representatives of local community groups came together in the local library and, using a live two-way video link, put questions to Dundee East MSP Shona Robison.
Members are implementing new developments themselves. A current project will see all MSPs equipped with wireless devices. These will improve the accessibility of MSPs to the public as well as providing an effective mechanism to enhance information delivery to members themselves. The Parliament has also recently embraced broadband technologies to improve communication channels with members' constituency offices. The initiative equipped more than 100 local offices throughout Scotland with a broadband connection.
Visitor Services
In July 2004 the doors closed on the Visitor Centre and shop at the Mound. In five years it had welcomed 30,000 people a year, around 150,000 overall.
On 7 September 2004 the doors at Holyrood opened and 150,000 visitors were welcomed in the first 16 weeks. It is clear that the Parliament has become a 'must see' for the people of Scotland and for visitors to Edinburgh. To the end of June 2005, the total visitor figure was over 420,000.
The Scottish Parliament welcomes visitors seven days a week. A dedicated Visitor Services team support visitors who wish to participate in parliamentary business and those interested in exploring the Parliament's new home.
All visitors can access the building and, in the public areas, they can view an exhibition about the Parliament and make use of the shop, public café and Visitor Information Desk. The Parliament also offers a crèche for people with child care responsibilities who want to take part in parliamentary business. Visitor Services advance-book free tickets for committee meetings in Edinburgh and around Scotland, and for the Chamber public gallery. It administers a signing-in process that supports meetings such as the cross-party groups and events, as well as welcoming MSPs’ and staff visitors.
The Scottish Parliament shop has originated a Holyrood brand to sell alongside the Scottish Parliament's official logo. The graphic is based on the iconic MSPs' office windows and is available on pens, china, mugs, t-shirts and confectionery. Visitors can buy a wide range of high quality branded goods from the Parliament shop as a reminder of their visit. The Holyrood building postcards are a bestseller, with nearly 50,000 sold.
The guided tours service runs on days when there is no parliamentary business and has attracted a tremendous public response. Over 30,000 people visited in the two weeks of October recess. Analysis of visitors shows that schools and community groups are visiting during the week, with families and tourists spending time at weekends and during recess. One in five visitors chose to take a guided tour.
Public Information
The Public Information Service answers enquiries from the public and provides information about the Scottish Parliament, its membership, business and procedures.
The interest generated by the Parliament's move to Holyrood led to a substantial number of enquiries this year, doubling the usual number received in the autumn. The telephone enquiry line handled over 95,000 calls in the period from May 2004 to June 2005 and responded to over 12,000 detailed enquiries.
The Public Information Service responds to written enquiries in any language and can provide information in a number of formats.
A range of new publications were produced to provide information to visitors about the new building and explain how the Parliament works. In view of the variety of languages spoken by Scottish citizens and the huge international interest of the building to tourists, the three lead publications were printed in various languages and formats. Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Punjabi and Urdu translated leaflets now sit alongside the French, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian leaflets produced for the Parliament's tourist visitors. Braille, audio and large-print versions are also available free of charge and an update to the British Sign Language video is under way.
Gàidhlig/Gaelic
The Parliament's Gaelic Officers provide a range of services to the Gaelic community, MSPs and parliamentary staff. In 2004-5, a wide range of information and education publications
and up-to-date online parliamentary news in Gaelic were produced. The Gaelic information content on the Parliament's new website was extended and the Gaelic media were provided with information and interviews. A series of events were arranged with the Education Committee around the theme of the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill and its legislative process. There were a number of educational sessions in the Parliament for Gaelic learners and speakers as well as visits to Gaelic communities, groups and schools throughout Scotland from Lanarkshire to Lewis. The Gaelic Service also represented the Parliament at the Royal National Mòd and other major Gaelic public events.
Education Service
Since May 2004 over 8,000 young people have visited the Parliament through the Education Service. Of these, 57% were from primary schools, 36% from secondary schools and 7% from further education colleges, universities or community groups. Education Service visits focus on how young people can participate and make their views heard through debate, followed by the opportunity to question MSPs about current issues and their work in Parliament. A visit to the Chamber is the highlight at the end of the session, bringing to life what has been studied in the classroom.
The Education Service held 20 teacher seminars for both in-service and trainee teachers, attracting a total of 539 participants from across Scotland. Each day is designed to provide teachers with an insight into the workings of the Parliament and the services and resources available, to help give them confidence when teaching this topic. Feedback from these events has been very positive.
A new version of the Parliament's Education Pack was produced and sent to every school in Scotland, providing teachers with information on its work. For online visitors, the Parliament's website now offers an interactive section of activities and games such as jigsaws and word-searches, and an interactive picture of the Debating Chamber. Schools have also made an impression on the Parliament's Visitor Services. The Design a Postcard competition resulted in 2,500 entries and the eight winners' postcards have been used in the Parliament to collect comments.
Outreach Service
The Parliament continues to deliver on its commitment to be open and accessible at a local level through a range of community outreach events across Scotland.
During 2004-05 the Outreach Service team held 28 events as far afield as Stornoway, Thurso and Dumbarton. A total of 1,400 people attended these sessions, representing a wide range of community groups and civic agencies such as community councils, voluntary and charity groups, senior citizens' clubs, youth associations and ethnic minority groups.
These public meetings aimed to raise awareness and understanding of what the Parliament is and how it works. Importantly, local communities and individuals are encouraged to become involved with and influence the Parliament. For example, MSP question-and-answer sessions give constituents the opportunity to raise local issues with their MSPs.
SPICe
The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) supports the Parliament's research and information needs by providing an enquiry service, an impartial research briefing service, official documentation and an electronic, intranet-based, current awareness service. SPICe also provides a variety of other services including advice on freedom of information; records management; data protection; management of the Parliament's reference and Donald Dewar collections; and provision of a book leasing and inter-library loans service. It also has responsibility for the content editorship of the Parliament's website and intranet.
Last year SPICe contributed improvements to the content and arrangement of both the intranet and internet sites. In addition a new section has been added on each individual bill page, showing the progress of each piece of legislation; the accessibility of the research briefings pages has been improved; and a new series of Scottish Parliament fact sheets has been produced.
The opening of the Donald Dewar Room on 11 October 2004 was the culmination of three years of preparation of the material presented to the Parliament by Donald Dewar's children after his death. The collection, including books, photographs and newspaper cuttings, is now housed in a specially designed room in Queensberry House. This is a quiet working area for MSPs, but on Mondays and Fridays it is accessible to the public by appointment, and over 2,000 visitors have already been shown round. Further details of the collection, including a catalogue, can be found on the Parliament's website.
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