Parliamentary Public Engagement - how's Westminster doing?

UK

A new report from the Hansard Society, Parliaments and Public Engagement: Innovation and Good Practice from Around the World, published today, reveals that the Westminster Parliament is one of the more innovative parliamentary institutions when it comes to engaging the public with its work but that there is still much it can learn from good practice in other countries. 

Many legislatures around the world face a common problem: their public are neither knowledgeable about nor particularly satisfied with them as institutions. Yet, unless the public are informed about what parliaments are doing they cannot influence the institution; and unless they can influence the institution they cannot hold it and their elected members fully to account. Over the course of the last decade parliaments have had to grapple with the broad political challenges this problem poses, and in an effort to do so, public engagement programmes have become core business for many legislatures.

Parliaments and Public Engagement highlights examples of innovative and potentially transferable good practice in this fast developing field of parliamentary activity, setting out a broad menu of ideas designed to help parliaments consider what options might be the ‘best fit' for their own public engagement goals.  The areas the report primarily focuses on are:

• Information provision: for example, education and training materials, website presence
• Parliament as public space: visitor facilities, access tours and exhibitions
• Education: activities and initiatives on- and off-site for teachers, students, and the wider community
• Outreach: civil society links, community partnerships and social inclusion programmes to engage with hard to reach groups
• Facilitation: support platforms for parliamentarians and/or officials to engage with the public, particularly through e-forums or other online, digital democracy mechanisms
• Media: initiatives with print media, broadcasting and new media platforms - both promotional and partnership work.
  

The report finds that each parliament grapples with many of the same difficulties: how to draw the line between political and parliamentary activity; how to balance the needs of political representatives with those of administrative officials whilst retaining the support of the former as the primary ‘face' of the institution in the public mind; how to develop an ‘ambassadorial' capacity; how to reach out beyond the ‘usual suspects' to engage with a broad range of individuals and organisations; how to go beyond traditional media outlets in communicating the best work of the parliament; and how, in the face of enormous market competition, to make best use of limited resources. 

Parliaments and Public Engagement finds that initiatives which represent a major step change in public engagement practice are often the result of the parliament finding that it needs to respond to a crisis; it must react to a significant political shift in the country; or it seeks to take advantage of a milestone, such as the anniversary of the founding of the institution.  These three factors - ‘windows of opportunity' - often lead to reviews of established practices and greater innovation as a consequence.

A ‘blank slate' approach as a new parliamentary institution is established (as for example, in Scotland and Wales as a result of devolution), or the appointment of new officials or a new group within the parliament, can also lead to a more proactive and innovative approach in this area of activity.

Dr Ruth Fox, Director of Research at the Hansard Society, commented:

‘Public engagement is now core business for most parliaments. Westminster is one of the parliamentary leaders in this area but there is a rich variety of ideas, initiatives and good practice emerging from institutions across the globe which could be used at Westminster and in other parliaments to add value to their existing work. They don't all cost a lot of money - indeed, some are important sources of income generation. We hope this report will act as a useful resource that parliaments can consult in order to learn about new ideas and innovations in public engagement that are being tried and tested in other places.'

For further information, contact Virginia Gibbons, Head of Communications at the Hansard Society on 0207 438 1225 or comms@hansardsociety.org.uk

Editors' Notes

• The Hansard Society is the UK's leading independent, non-partisan political research and education charity (www.hansardsociety.org.uk)
• Parliaments and Public Engagement: Innovation and Good Practice from Around the World explores the public engagement work of over 50 parliaments encompassing a broad and representative range of political systems, geographical regions and developed and developing democracies.
• The report highlights eConsultations, outreach Bill workshops and ‘Train the Trainer' programmes, the ‘MP for a week' and ‘MyUK' on-line educational games, and the Peers in Schools and Speaker's School Council Awards Scheme as among the Westminster Parliament's most innovative initiatives from which other legislatures might learn.
• The report also provides international good practice examples from which Westminster and other parliaments might learn, including: a range of thematic tours and visits in the German Bundestag and on Canada's Parliament Hill; open days and night sittings in Switzerland, the Parliament of New South Wales and the Estonian Riiggikogu; the Capitol Hill visitor centre in the USA; online forums in the Chilean Senate; and educational programmes such as the Norwegian ‘Mini Ting' and the Danish ‘Politician for a day'.
• The research was supported by the Group on Information for the Public, UK Parliament.
• The author of this report, Dr Ruth Fox, will be giving evidence to the House of Commons Administration Committee's inquiry into visitor services on Monday 30 January at 5:15pm in Committee Room 16.