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The Committee undertook an inquiry into committee effectiveness. Committee effectiveness is about looking at how committees work and whether there are things which could help them work better.

To help the Committee find this out, it looked for an answer to the following question:

“Are there changes to the Parliament’s procedures and practices which would help committees to work more effectively?”

To answer this question, the Committee considered three themes:

Structure

The current structure of committees, the best size of membership and the number of committees. The remit of committees, including whether they should mirror the Scottish Government Ministerial portfolios or whether a different approach could be taken. The Gender Sensitive Audit set out a suite of proposals relating to quotas for committee membership. As a Committee we have agreed that as a minimum, there should be no single sex committees. We intend to propose this change take effect from the start of the next parliamentary session.

The key questions the Committee sought to answer on this theme were:

• Are there structural and procedural changes which would improve committee scrutiny?
• Are there structural and procedural changes which would allow committees to be more effective with their time?
• Are there changes which would help committees better carry out scrutiny.

Consultation on Elected Conveners 2024

In 2024 the Committee consulted ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, the Parliamentary Bureau and the Convener’s Group regarding:

• Whether they were in favour of elected conveners
• Possible advantages and disadvantages of elected conveners
• How the nomination process would operate

Responses to the consultation were received from:

Anonymous (136KB, pdf) posted 26 September 2025
Fergus Ewing MSP (210KB, pdf) posted 26 September 2025
Michelle Thomson MSP (164KB, pdf) posted 26 September 2025
Paul Sweeney MSP (154KB, pdf) posted 26 September 2025
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (188KB, pdf) posted 26 September 2025
Scottish Parliamentary Bureau (62KB, pdf) posted 26 September 2025
Scottish Parliament Conveners Group (178KB, pdf) posted 26 September 2025

Evaluation

The Committee considered how committees currently evaluate their work and whether there are changes or improvements which could be made to this.

This included approaches to pre and post legislative scrutiny and considerations of how work is planned to build in evaluation and reflection.

The key questions the Committee sought to answer on this theme were:

• Are there additional opportunities for committees to evaluate and reflect on work they undertake?
• How time can be built into work programmes for evaluation by committees of their own approaches, especially where these may be new?

Background

The Committee has considered the attached background briefing paper regarding research and data relevant to the inquiries remit.

Committee Effectiveness Inquiry SPICe and Adviser Briefing (528KB, pdf) posted 17 September 2025

Committee Adviser

The Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee appointed Dr Danielle Beswick as adviser to provide advice and assistance for its inquiry into Scottish Parliament committee effectiveness.