Marc Geddes gives oral evidence to the Scottish Parliament on committee effectiveness

On 20 March, Dr Marc Geddes, Principal Investigator for SPARK, gave oral evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee as part of the SPPA Committee’s inquiry into ‘committee effectiveness’.

Drawing on previous research on the House of Commons, Marc explained some of the complex factors that needed to be considered to make committees effective, including the willingness of conveners and members of committees to take cross-party working seriously, and for committee members and conveners to discuss, understand and evaluate what each other – and their committees as a whole – want to achieve. Marc also discussed some of the structural and procedural factors that affect committee effectiveness. He noted the benefits of electing select committee chairs in the House of Commons for strengthening scrutiny.

 As part of his written and oral evidence, Marc drew attention to some of the early findings from SPARK and related research on the role of evidence in parliaments. He explained the importance of gathering diverse evidence, and making sure that evidence can be analysed systematically and rigorously through adequate resourcing for committees.

Marc gave evidence alongside several other witnesses: Professor Meg Russell (UCL Constitution Unit), David Natzler (former Clerk of the House of Commons), Gemma Diamond (Audit Scotland) and Brian Taylor (former Political Editor of BBC Scotland). You can watch the committee hearing here, and find Marc’s informal research note for the SPPA Committee here.

Image source: Scottish Parliament TV