Hearing Different Voices: The Diversity of Committee Witnesses in the Scottish Parliament and Beyond
Parliamentary committees scrutinise policies and hold the executive to account. But to do so effectively, they need to hear from people from every corner of the country, with different backgrounds, jobs, experiences, and views. Too often, however, the people giving oral evidence to committees do not reflect the make-up of the population of the country as a whole, in particular, neglecting the voices of women, transgender and nonbinary people, and people of colour.
Research from the University of Lincoln, led by Professor Hugh Bochel, has helped the Scottish Parliament change how it selects the people giving evidence to committees and how it monitors diversity, delivering a clear impact on the gender balance of witnesses. Through this work, committees at Holyrood are now hearing a wider range of voices, to help inform their work, and better reflecting the founding principles of the institution: power-sharing, accountability, openness, participation and equal opportunities. As the Head of Committees and Outreach at the Scottish Parliament, Susan Duffy, states in the foreword to new guidance produced on witness diversity, following Professor Bochel’s research:
It’s crucial that Parliament’s scrutiny of policy and the legislation Members pass is informed by a wide range of experiences, needs and views – especially from those most directly affected by the policy in question. What’s more, having people at the table with different backgrounds and perspectives makes for a more dynamic conversation and greater challenge and testing of policy proposals.
We are all too aware that neither Parliament itself nor the witnesses we hear from week after week reflect the diversity of Scottish society. Those watching from outside may see this and feel that participation in democracy is not for “people like me”. Parliament is not alone in facing these challenges, but we have a crucial role in leading the way, demonstrating that people from all backgrounds and experiences can contribute their views and expertise to public life.
The impact of this research has spread far beyond Edinburgh. Professor Bochel has shown that listening to a wide range of voices can provide additional benefits for democracy in legislatures across the world: improving scrutiny through a variety of perspectives; enhancing participation and potentially reducing socio-economic exclusion in the process.
Global impact
- Scotland: Working with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) Professor Bochel identified the characteristics of the 2,000 witnesses giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament each year and demonstrated the potential benefits for parliaments in accessing a greater diversity of witnesses for committees. He led the Scottish Parliament to develop an action plan for increasing witness diversity, produce ‘Witness Diversity Committee Clerk Guidance’, and to collate diversity figures on an annual basis. This work has contributed to a steady increase of the proportion of Scottish Parliament witnesses who were women from 38% in 2016-17 to 43% in 2019-20.
- UK: Professor Bochel’s research has been cited by the House of Commons Liaison Committee the ‘super committee’ comprising all select committee chairs—which has agreed an aim that at least 40 per cent of ‘discretionary’ witnesses (not ministers or heads of key organisations) should be female, with the latest figures showing an increase from 32% to 39%. Professor Bochel’s work has also encouraged the Commons to publish gender data on public bill committee witnesses in the 2017-19 Sessional Returns for the first time, which showed that only 28% were female.
- US: Professor Bochel’s research and his work with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (leading a Tri-Caucus initiative also involving the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus) has led to a change of Congress rules to track (and improve) witness diversity from July 2021.
Find out more
If you’re interested in ensuring that parliamentary committees hear from a wide range of voices, or want to find out more about why this is important for representative democracy, then find out more at the Lincoln Parliamentary Research Centre – ParliLinc.
You can also click on the link below to discover the person behind the project and take a look at our Lincoln Policy Brief to learn more about the policy impact of Professor Bochel’s research: