Committees and Witnesses in the Scottish Parliament: Beyond the ‘usual suspects’?

IF 0.5 Q4 POLITICAL SCIENCE

Scottish Affairs Pub Date : 2021-07-23 DOI:10.3366/scot.2021.0373

H. Bochel, Anouk Berthier

引用次数: 2

Abstract

The committees of the Scottish Parliament play an important role in scrutinising the legislation and policies of the Scottish Government, and indeed the work of other organisations. A key element of that task is gathering evidence, including from those who appear as witnesses, yet relatively little has been written about that work. This article draws upon an analysis of committee witnesses and interviews with MSPs and officials to provide further understanding of how witnesses are selected, describe some of their characteristics, and consider how they contribute to committee inquiries. It suggests that while the Parliament has made progress in seeking evidence from beyond the ‘usual suspects’, there would be further benefits in diversifying further the voices from which committees hear.

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苏格兰议会的委员会和证人:超越“通常的嫌疑人”?

苏格兰议会委员会在审查苏格兰政府的立法和政策以及其他组织的工作方面发挥着重要作用。这项任务的一个关键要素是收集证据，包括从那些作为证人出庭的人那里收集证据，但关于这项工作的报道相对较少。本文通过对委员会证人的分析以及对MSP和官员的采访，进一步了解证人是如何选择的，描述他们的一些特征，并考虑他们如何为委员会调查做出贡献。这表明，尽管议会在从“常见嫌疑人”之外寻求证据方面取得了进展，但委员会听到的声音进一步多样化将带来进一步的好处。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Scottish Affairs POLITICAL SCIENCE-

CiteScore

1.20

自引率

25.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Scottish Affairs, founded in 1992, is the leading forum for debate on Scottish current affairs. Its predecessor was Scottish Government Yearbooks, published by the University of Edinburgh''s ''Unit for the Study of Government in Scotland'' between 1976 and 1992. The movement towards the setting up the Scottish Parliament in the 1990s, and then the debate in and around the Parliament since 1999, brought the need for a new analysis of Scottish politics, policy and society. Scottish Affairs provides that opportunity. Fully peer-reviewed, it publishes articles on matters of concern to people who are interested in the development of Scotland, often setting current affairs in an international or historical context, and in a context of debates about culture and identity. This includes articles about similarly placed small nations and regions throughout Europe and beyond. The articles are authoritative and rigorous without being technical and pedantic. No subject area is excluded, but all articles pay attention to the social and political context of their topics. Thus Scottish Affairs takes up a position between informed journalism and academic analysis, and provides a forum for dialogue between the two. The readers and contributors include journalists, politicians, civil servants, business people, academics, and people in general who take an informed interest in current affairs.