Although the Scottish Parliament has only had its full powers for 11 days, Westminster is already looking north to see what lessons can be learned from the Scottish way of doing parliamentary business.

Clive Soley MP, a member of the House of Commons Modernisation Committee, today visited Presiding Officer Sir David Steel, and his colleagues in Edinburgh, to see at first hand ways in which the UK Parliament might be able to modernise its working procedures.

Speaking after his day-long fact-finding tour, Mr Soley said:

"I wanted to see the new Parliament not just because it is an exciting development, but because there are lessons to be learned in making Parliament more accessible to the people and more relevant to their lives.

"I was particularly impressed by the Parliament’s education centre which is dedicated to working with every primary and secondary school in Scotland, to ensure that the next generation of voters can get closer to their Parliament and understand how it works.

"It was also interesting to see the Parliament’s electronic voting system in operation. Although Westminster has looked at similar ideas before, we still rely upon the age-old process of locking members into the voting lobbies. This may well be an area that the Modernisation Committee will wish to re-visit."

Elsewhere during his programme of meetings, Mr Soley received a demonstration of the Scottish Parliament’s website from staff at the public information office, toured the visitors’ centre at George IV Bridge and discussed procedural rules with the Parliament’s Committee clerks.

Sir David Steel added:

"So far, the feedback from the public has been very positive about our education centre, visitor centre and website. And I am delighted that Clive will be able to take back to Westminster some of our best ideas."

BACKGROUND NOTE

1. The Scottish Parliament’s education centre will begin full visit programmes for school parties in September. A 16-page booklet "The Teacher’s Guide to the Scottish Parliament" has been sent to every primary and secondary school in Scotland to help teachers introduce the study of Parliament to pupils of all ages. For more details, contact the public information enquiries number below.

2. The Parliament’s visitor centre is situated at the Scottish Parliament, Committee Chambers, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh and is open Mondays – Fridays 0930 hours – 1700 hours and on Saturdays 0930 – 1700 hours during summer (July 03 until September 11).

3. Clive Soley is Chairman of the parliamentary Labour Party at Westminster.