News In Focus
10 February 2010
Raise a petition - send a text or "boo"
The Scottish Parliament is adding to its technology initiatives to encourage the public to get involved with the parliamentary process.
The Public Petitions Committee has invited the public to use a series of social media tools – "boos" (digital sound recordings), texts and podcasts – to access information on:
- what a petition is
- how to submit and support one
- what happens to a petition during committee meetings.
As part of this launch a new streamlined information leaflet, Petitioning the Scottish Parliament: Making Your Voice Heard, will explain the petitions process more clearly and simply.
The initiatives come as a response to the Public Petitions Committee’s inquiry into the public petitions process which ran from June 2008 to June 2009, and the thoughts and suggestions put forward by members of the public at committee meetings in Berwickshire, Glasgow and Aberdeenshire.
First for e-petitions
Committee Convener Frank McAveety MSP said: “We were the first parliament in the world to accept e-petitions back in 2000 and now in 2010 we hope to maintain our reputation for innovation by increasing the options which make it easier for people to access information and submit petitions.
"From today, you can download our new leaflet, podcast versions of this in a range of different languages, support an e-petition by text and listen to committee updates at AudioBoo. We hope these outlets, alongside our Public Petitions blog, will allow us to share information more easily and in more formats with petitioners and those following petitions.”
Click here to find out more.