Le Blog de Netpolitique

Netpolitique : How long has the right to file electronic petitions been in place in Scotland?

Pr. McIntosh: 6 years. In July 1999 the Scottish Parliament was officially opened. This gave devolved power for specific areas of government from the Westminster Parliament in London to a new Scottish Parliament. One of the main documents setting out how the new Parliament should work identified 4 key principles as the basis for the way which the Parliament should conduct its work and these were unanimously agreed by the Parliament:

• Sharing the Power
• Accountability
• Access and Participation
• Equal Opportunities.

Integral to developing this culture was the establishment of a Public Petitions Committee whose remit consists solely of the consideration of petitions. In consultation with the International Teledemocracy Centre at Napier University and British Telecom, the Scottish Parliament introduced the e-petitioner system and agreed to accept its first e-petition in December 1999. The development of e-petitioner should be viewed within the Parliament’s overall attempts to utilise ICTs to allow easier accessibility to participation in the political process. Anyone can e-petition and there is easy to follow guidance on-line.

Netpolitique: Has it effectively contributed to greater citizen participation in public debates, or has it contributed to opening the floodgate for en masse political spam?

Pr. McIntosh: It has contributed to greater citizen participation. The objectives of the e-petitioner system, and the processes in place for its effective management, are to provide a service for citizens to raise concerns and have them addressed through the formal processes of parliament. Specifically, e-petitioner aims to enhance citizens' access to the petitioning process. The aim of enhancing access to Parliament has been realized in terms of these specific requirements:

• Any citizen is able to raise an e-petition provided it adheres to admissibility criteria, e.g. that it is on an issue that the Scottish Parliament has powers to deal with.
• Petitions should be regarded as topics of public debate by a geographically dispersed population, rather than simply as online documents to be delivered to elected representatives. E-petitioner adds to the participative element of the traditional petitioning process by allowing the possibility for citizens to discuss online an e-petition, regardless of whether they add their name in support of it.

There are large rural areas in Scotland and e-petitioner allows citizens to collect support widely for their petition. It also allows petitioners in different parts of the country to co-ordinate their campaigns and is useful for the Parliament in identifying where an issue has widespread support. For example, a Parliamentary Committee considered an e-petition on the closure of rural schools and it was clear from comments on the discussion forum that this issue was prevalent in more than one area in Scotland.

In the current session of the Scottish Parliament 67 e-petitions have been raised on a number of issues ranging from ‘Broadband for all of Scotland by 2005’, ‘Coastal and River erosion’ and ‘Culture and Tourism Policies regarding Robert Burns.’ One of the strengths of the system is the range of issues which are raised by citizens many of which may otherwise not be considered by the Parliament. Over 33,000 signatures have been added in support of petitions during this period and over 880 comments have been posted on the discussion forums. The discussion forum is helping to further the objective of developing a ‘culture of genuine consultation and participation’ by encouraging communities who were previously excluded from the political process to participate in the work of the Parliament.

Signatures added to petitions are regularly checked for spurious names and addresses, and the discussion forum is moderated on a daily basis. In particular, comments are checked to ensure that they are relevant to the aims of the petition and not potentially defamatory or inflammatory. Over the 6 years of using the system we have not encountered en masse political spam.

We have had highly positive feedback from an exit questionnaire which visitors to the e-petitioner site are asked to complete. The Committee has also had positive feedback from evaluation forms completed at the end of a number of events which we have carried out across Scotland. A study was also carried out that involved interviews with e-petitioners and which found that all interviewees regarded e-petitioner as a useful tool for influencing politicians.

Netpolitique: If the French Parliament were to implement this, based on the Scottish model, what are, in your experience, the "dos and donts" to be aware of?

Pr. McIntosh: Key learning points have been:

• The need for a shared willingness to innovate in methods of public involvement;
• Clearly worded and easy to follow guidelines need to be published in the interests of transparency and process management;
• To enhance accessibility of the process, the petitioning ‘front end’ must also be accessible and usable;
• Building online discussion capabilities into the e-petitions addresses the need for the online process to open up the possibilities for public discussion, including discussion with elected representatives where appropriate, around topics that concern citizens.
• Public credibility is a key element for long term sustainability of e-petitioning as a public engagement mechanism. This means that a key element of the e-petitioning system is the ability to track progress of an e-petition through the decision-making process, and that the management process must also meet the need to update the progress information so that citizens and others can monitor the political process.

The Scottish Parliament’s e-Petitions System has led the way in offering citizens the possibility of a more active interaction with the political process. Internationally it is highly regarded as an innovative use of ICT. It is demonstrably meeting its prime objectives of making the petitioning process more readily accessible and transparent, to provide a direct means of holding elected politicians to account other than through the ballot box. The Scottish Parliament approach has been found to be transferable to other legislative arms of government, see for example the German Bundestag.