21st century digital services
for parliamentarians
Paul Cannon
Information Assistant, SPICe
11 June 2009

Principles of the Scottish Parliament
Key corporate principles:
 Power sharing between the people, parliament
and the executive
 Accountable to the people of Scotland
 Accessible, open, responsive and participative
 Promote equal opportunities

Enquiry team
 Confidential enquiry service
 Parliamentary and MSP information
 FOI and Data protection
 Enquiries database

Information Management team
 Modern information management
 Collection, inc. Dewar collection
 Document supply
 Records management
 Indexing and cataloguing
 Book leasing

E-services team
 Manage and edit intranet/website
 Electronic resources
 Training and guidance
 Current awareness services
 Web development project and
innovation

Research team
 Varied backgrounds
 Subject skills
 Economy, Finance Local Government
 Health and Social Affairs
 Justice
 Parliament, Europe and Constitution
 Planning, Rural Affairs, Environment
and Transport

Individual inquiries
Logged enquiries
2000 1751
1444 1424
1500 1281
992 999 1011 986
1000 773 859
500
0
6
7
8
2
3
4
0
1
5
9
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
/0
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
99
00
08
19
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20

Who asks?
11,500 enquiries to SPICe 2006-07
Other
Public/ MSP
13%
12%
Holyrood
Staff MSP Staff
SP 29%
36%
Local office
MSP Staff
10%

How do they ask?
Letter
0%
Personal
28%
Email
43%
Telephone
29%

How do MSPs ask?
Letter
0%
Email Personal
39% 41%
Telephone
20%

How do local office staff ask?
Letter Personal
0% 6%
Email
49% Telephone
45%

Challenges
 Unreasonable expectations
 Turnover in MSP staff
 Training and inductions
 Information currency
 Limited awareness of services
and products
 Not proactive enough
 Technology
 Consistent responses

Trying to improve
 Customer focus, simplified
message
 Marketing
 Open evening
 Members’ needs
 Local office needs
 Training
 New and improved online
services

Fact sheets and Research Briefings
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/research/index.htm

Research Briefings
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/research/date/index.htm

Bill Tracker
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/bills/billsInProgress/currentbillstracker.htm

Committee Business Tracker
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/committeetracker.htm

Enquiries and Research Briefings
Database

Enquiries and Research Briefings
Database

Material for Debates

SPICe Insight

SPICe Insight

SPICe Insight

SPICe Insight

Podcasts
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/vli/Podcasts/index.htm

Text service
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/vli/publicInfo/textservice.htm

Constituency Maps and
Postcode Finder
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/membersPages/MSPAddressPostcodeFinder.htm

www.scottish.parliament.uk
spice@scottish.parliament.uk
0131 348 5300