Parliament's e-petitions system makes final shortlist for eEurope award

CPET004/2005 | 24 November 2005

The Scottish Parliament’s e-petitions system has made it to the final shortlist of nominees for a prestigious European award.

Following the final phase of judging at the 2005 Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Manchester the e-petitions system is one of only four nominees to go through to the eEurope Awards Ceremony in the Service Use category.

At the ceremony in Manchester later this afternoon (Thursday), the judges will announce if the Parliament has been chosen as the overall winner of the category, or the recipient of an Honourable Mention, from an initial entry of 234 submissions for the awards.

The awards, run by the European Institute of Public Administration, recognise best practice in internet projects among Member States of the European Union, the candidate countries and Member States of the European Fair Trade Association.

When the Parliament’s ePetitions system was nominated in the Service Use category of the awards last month, the judges said:

“This system uses simple and elegant technology to enable citizens to access high level decision making processes. The impact is high, because it promotes community democracy through easy access to the decision making body.

“This is a high impact project which represents a good model for other eDemocracy initiatives."

The Parliament’s ePetitions system, along with the other nominees, has received a Good Practice Label from the judges.

The Scottish Parliament has a stand on display at the Ministerial Conference in Manchester’s International Conference Centre, to demonstrate to delegates how the e-petitioning system works. The conference is being hosted jointly by the European Commission and the UK presidency of the European Union.

Committee Convener Michael McMahon said:

“We are absolutely delighted that the ePetition system has made it this far in a highly competitive competition which demonstrates the substantial impact which the system has made on the judges. It is an honour that it has received yet more recognition at European level, and has been praised as a model for others to follow.

“Quite rightly, the system has impressed many other democracies around Europe, by using new technology to enhance the democratic process, and hopefully with this further recognition in the form of a Good Practice label, more will follow our lead.”

The system was initially developed through a partnership between British Telecom Scotland and Napier University. Professor Ann Macintosh from Napier said:

“We are obviously delighted that e-petitioner has been recognised in this way and it is further evidence of the growing impact which it is having since being formally launched by the Scottish Parliament.

“This impact can also be seen in the piloting of a similar system both at national level as illustrated by the German Bundestag and at local level as illustrated by Bristol City Council and Kingston upon Thames who are piloting the system as part of a UK Government ‘Local e-Democracy National Project’.”

Andrew Welsh MSP is attending the conference on behalf of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body.

Since its formal launch in February 2004, 69 e-petitions have been posted on the Parliament’s website using the system, attracting more than 33,000 signatures and more than 880 discussion comments.

Background

In August, the German Parliament - the Bundestag - announced it was launching an electronic petitions system based on a version used by the committee.
For more information on this, visit http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/news/news-comm-05/cpet05-003.htm

There was also praise for the Parliament's e-petitioning facility at an event in the European Parliament in Brussels in May, held by EPRI (European Parliaments Research Initiative) Knowledge.
For more information on this, visit
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/news/news-05/pa05-046.htm

And earlier this month, a European Parliament official visited the Parliament for guidance on setting up a web television channel following the success of www.holyrood.tv.

For more information on this visit
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/news/news-05/pa05-101.htm

For further information on the Parliament's e-democracy work visit http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/edemocracy

Pictures of the event can be made available on request from Andrew Cowan on 0131 348 6269.

The Parliament's media contact is:

Sally Coyne Tel: 0131 348 6269
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email: sally.coyne@scottish.parliament.uk

For public information enquiries, contact: 0131 348 5000 or 0845 278 1999 (local call rate)
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