Calman Commission to exclude the public

SNP MSP Alasdair Allan has highlighted the cost of the Calman Commission as minutes of a Commission meeting show it will not engage with the general public.

The Minutes of the Engagement Task Group’s first meeting show the Ministry of Justice is to provide £500,000 to fund the Commission.  In contrast the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body is providing only £50,000 – highlighting who is really in control.

The Commission minutes also state that it “would not be appropriate for the Commission to hold “town hall” meetings across Scotland open to the general public” but instead would use well briefed focus groups – in spite of Wendy Alexander’s claim in Parliament that “Scots of all walks of life should have the chance to contribute to the debate”

Online contributors will have to select their answers from a list of options rather than offer their own views and comments outside the remit of the inquiry, eg Independence, will be excluded.

Mr Allan said;

“So far the decision of this Commission seems to be to do as little as possible in case they don’t like the answers.

“With 500,000 to spend on engaging with the public it will mostly be spent on controlling the answers.  That the overwhelming majority of funding for this Commission comes from London underlines the real political control.

“Any mention of Independence will be struck from the evidence and the public’s views will not be taken in an open and transparent way.  Far from allowing “Scots of all walks of life” to join the debate as the unionist parties promised this is the closed talking shop for the great and the good that the SNP predicted.

“If the unionist parties Commission won’t listen to the views of the public the SNP will.  The National Conversation allows all people across Scotland to have their say as well as civil society, churches, unions, academics and industry.

“Once again it seems the unionist parties are going back on their word and refusing to trust the Scottish people.  In contrast the Scottish Government’s National Conversation is reaching out to people across Scotland, welcoming their views and giving the whole country the opportunity to have a say on Scotland’s future.”

ENDS

Notes:

1. Quote by Wendy Alexander, 6th December 2007

“To succeed, the new commission must take the debate beyond the Parliament. It must build on what we have learned over the past decade. It should draw upon business leaders, the public sector, trade unions, voluntary groups and academia. Moreover, Scots of all walks of life should have the chance to contribute to the debate.”

Scottish Parliament Official Report

2. Engagement Task Group – Minutes of 1st meeting, Thursday 15th May 2008

3. The Secretariat advised that a budget of around £500K had been allocated for the work of the Commission by the Ministry of Justice. This budget would be kept under review. It would be up to the Group to recommend engagement methods that would further the work of the Commission while securing value for money.

11. The Group agreed that it would not be appropriate for the Commission to hold “town-hall” meetings across Scotland open to the general public, at least during the information-gathering stage of its work.

12. Where it was considered important to establish general public opinion on particular issues within the Commission’s remit, a better approach was likely to be the use of focus-groups. These might involve relatively small numbers of people, selected to be representative of the wider population (in relation to age, social class, etc.), with briefing and facilitation to encourage considered and well-informed outputs

Policy on Handling Written Submissions

The Commission does not guarantee to publish every submission received. In particular, submissions that are judged to fall outside the Commission's remit (in whole or in part) may not be published (or not published in full). We may also decide not to publish submissions that are identical or substantially similar to submissions already received. Submissions that are judged to be trivial or facetious, or that include statements that could be regarded as offensive or defamatory, may also not be published, or may be edited prior to publication. The final decision on publication rests with the Commission chairman.