First Annual Report, IPRIN

This document,  remitted by J. Seaton, has been converted into HTML for easier retrieval. The word version is here.

Contents:
IPRIN Remit 1
Conference 2005: Holyrood 1
Conference 2006: Stormont 2
The IPRIN Web Site - 4
Agenda Item 4
2005 Web Site Evaluation 4
The Year Past 5
Houses of the Oireachtas 5
House of Commons Library 6
The Scottish Parliament Information Centre 7
The Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Library Service 8
The National Assembly for Wales Members’ Research Service 8
The House of Lords Library 9
Specific Issues 10
Devolution Monitoring 10
Ecological Footprint of the 2005 IPRIN Conference 12
Notes 13
 
IPRIN Remit
Set up initially as a network of parliamentary researchers, the Inter-Parliamentary Research and Information Network subsequently included information and library specialists.  The network serves as a forum for parliamentary research and information staff for the exchange of ideas and information in order to develop and improve efficiency, effectiveness and quality of members’ services.
Conference 2005: Holyrood
 
The IPRIN / IPISF Conference of 2005 took place between 20 and 22 July at the Scottish Parliament’s new Holyrood building in Edinburgh. 
Representatives from all UK parliaments and assemblies, including the States of Jersey, took part.  Delegates also attended from the Houses of the Oireachtas, the Corts Valencianes (Parliament of Valencia) and the Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament).  A full list of delegates and contact details is available on the IPRIN web site
http://www.iprn.net/IPRN Conference 2005 Scotland/List of delegates and contact details.doc
The conference programme included presentations by three external speakers; Kevin Dunion, the Scottish Information Commissioner, Professor John Curtice and Jamie Stone MSP.  The following Conference Papers are available on the web site through:
http://www.iprn.net/IPRN Conference 2005 Scotland/Forms/AllItems.aspx
E-democracy and the Scottish Parliament - Janet Seaton
E-voting in Estonia - Ulle Madisse
Parliament and information: when it is too much? Toivo Mangel, Riigikogu, Estonia
Presentation by John Curtice on electoral systems in the UK
Presentation by Kevin Dunion - the Scottish Information Commissioner
Workshops were held on the following topics:
(i) Current awareness services
(ii) Working for committees
(iii) Ensuring quality of enquiry responses
(iv) Client liaison and feedback
(v) Marketing services
(vi) Dealing with membership changes
(vii) Analysing elections
The 2006 IPRIN Conference will be hosted at Stormont by the Northern Ireland Assembly.  Details of workshop themes and the daily programme have been set out on the following pages.
 
Conference 2006: Stormont
19 – 21 JULY 2006
PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS
STORMONT
BELFAST
Workshop Themes:
• IPRIN Website
• Marketing and Updating Members
• NICSEL - Northern Ireland Civil Service e-Library
• Executive Relations and Access to Information
• Good Information Costs Money –  Library Versus the Search Engine
• Budget Scrutiny
• The Library and Legislation
• Assessing Output: Impact, Quality and Customer   Satisfaction
• Accessing and Using Government Statistics

Conference Programme:
DAY 1  WEDNESDAY 19TH JULY
 
12:00 - 12:30 Registration and Coffee
 
12:30 - 13:30 Buffet Lunch
 
13:30 - 13:45 Conference welcome and opening
 
13:45 – 14:15 Key Note Speaker 1
 
14:45 – 16:00 Heads of Service Updates
 
16:00 – 16:30 Workshops
 1.  IPRIN Website
 2.  Marketing and Updating Members
 
16:30 – 16:45 Plenary Feedback from Workshops
 
19:00 Dinner - Parliament Buildings
 

DAY 2  THURSDAY 20TH JULY
 
9:30 - 10:00 Registration and Coffee
 
10:00 - 10:30 Key Note Speaker 2
 
10:30 - 11:15 Workshops
 1.  NICSEL - Northern Ireland Civil Service e-Library
 2.  Executive Relations and Access to Information
 3.  Parliamentary Researcher & Librarian Training
 
11:15 – 11:45 Coffee
 
11:45 – 12:30 Workshops
 1.  Good Information Costs Money –  Library Versus the Search Engine
 2.  Budget Scrutiny
 3.  Preparing  Bill Papers
 
12:30 – 13:45 Lunch
 
13:45 – 14:45 Plenary Feedback from Workshops
 
14:45 – 15:15 Coffee
 
15:15 – 16:00 Workshops
 1.  The Library and Legislation
 2.  Assessing Output: Impact, Quality and Customer   Satisfaction
 3.  Accessing and Using Government Statistics
 
16:00 – 16:30 Plenary Feedback from Workshops
 
16:30 Close of Day
 
19:00 Dinner – City Centre Venue
 
DAY 3  FRIDAY 21ST JULY
 
9:30 - 10:00 Registration and Coffee
 
10:00 - 10:30 Keynote Speaker 3
 
10:30 - 11:30 Plenary -  IPRIN Evaluation and Future Direction
 
11:30 – 12:00 Coffee and Close of Conference*
 * Heads of Service to meet Following Close of Conference
12:00 – 12:30 Tour of Parliament Buildings
 
The IPRIN Web Site - http://www.iprn.net/default.aspx
 
Agenda Item
Since being set up, the IPRIN web site has arguably not realised its full potential.  A review of the web site was undertaken in 2005 and it will form a topic of one of the workshops on the first day of the 2006 Conference.  What follows might serve as a possible starting point for that workshop.
Once logged in, it is possible to:
• download research publications from each institution
• retrieve contact details of colleagues
• take part in discussion board forums, and
• set up alerts and announcements
It is perhaps worth pointing out that in order to get in to the web site, each member will require a user name and password.  These can be obtained through the ‘super-user’ of each institution, that is:
Welsh Assembly - Graham Winter
Northern Ireland Assembly - Eleanor Murphy
Westminster - Vaughne Miller
Scottish Parliament - Fiona Pirie
The Houses of the Oireachtas is an associate member of the IPRIN and there is a single super-user for the UK Parliament which does not distinguish the House of Lords from the House of Commons, or Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology.  This may be a point of discussion in the workshop on the web site.
2005 Web Site Evaluation
In 2005 an evaluation of the web site was undertaken.  Responses are summarised below.
(i) The site has not yet met many of its original aspirations, that is as a forum for the communication of ideas, mutual help and provision of references to documents and links
(ii) Potential benefit remains, for example on the collaboration on joint papers, a vehicle for collaborative working between parliamentary services, a forum for joint training opportunities and interaction amongst staff
(iii) The contact details section was considered valuable
(iv) Access to briefings of other parliaments and assemblies was useful as a ‘one stop shop’, although uploading difficulties was cited as a concern
(v) Opinion was split on the relative merits of the web site discussion boards as opposed to email groups
(vi) By the date of the evaluation, input of content on the site was seen as patchy
It was, however, concluded that it is worth maintaining the site due to its potential and the recent addition of Information Services to the IPRN, as was
The Review concluded with proposals for a way forward, that will be discussed at the 2006 Conference:
Proposed way forward
There have been serious problems in devoting enough staff time towards the project.  There does not appear to be any immediate solution to this.  However there is also general agreement that there is potential for the site to provide some value to colleagues in specific areas.  It is suggested that we focus our efforts on the following:
• Maintaining an up to date list of contacts – updated on a monthly basis and searchable by surname, subject specialism and/or institution.  As other parliaments have difficulty in logging users on, if details are sent to SPICe on the 1st of each month SPICe offers to upload this information onto the website – possibly even in a simple xl spreadsheet attachment
• Maintaining a list of recently published briefings – updated on a weekly basis.  Rather than uploading all briefings, if a list of new briefings is sent to SPICe the list will be uploaded on to the web site, and will be searchable by date, author, institution and subject.  Again this could be on the basis of an xl spreadsheet.  If a briefing is requested it is up to the researcher to make contact with the author
• Sharing documents on specific projects – we will encourage managers and others looking at strategic issues such as training, enquiry handling etc to share good practice on the website.  Similarly conference papers should also be loaded onto the website.
The above aspects are limited in scope but are manageable.  More ambitious work can come later but doing these simple but valuable projects will get the site on to a better footing.
Murray Earle
SPICe
 
The Year Past
Heads of services were asked each to contribute a short piece summarising some of the key activities of the past year.  These contributions have been reproduced below (in the sequence in which they were received).

 
Houses of the Oireachtas:  Library and Research Service
All change!
It feels like a year but it has only been seven months since the Oireachtas Library commenced a significant change management programme in late 2005.  A new management team was created to plan and manage the establishment of a research service and to significantly expand existing library and information services.  This team comprises a Head of Library and Research Services (Madelaine Dennison), Head of Library (Maura Corcoran) and Head of Research (Maria Fitzsimons). 
In early 2006 we presented our proposals for the development of the new Library and Research Service to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission which is responsible for the running of the Houses of the Oireachtas and the administration and management of the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas.  Approval was obtained for an integrated approach to library and research service delivery and a staffing structure to support this.   Since then we have been working towards the development of an integrated Library and Research Service which will deliver high-quality information and research services and resources to support the work of both Houses, Committees and individual Members. 
The staff of the House of Commons Library and SPICe have very generously shared  their expertise with us during this period. 
Laying foundations for the new service
We have prepared a Strategic Plan which reflects our vision for the Library and Research  Service  over the next  two  years
and provides a framework within which we will develop our services.  We identified four key strategic priorities which are critical for the establishment and operation of the new service:
• Create and deliver innovative research services and products;
• Engage with our clients;
• Develop the collection to support information and research services; and
• Develop our people.
We are in the process of implementing our Business Plan which outlines in detail the deliverables to be achieved under each of our key strategic priorities during 2006.  We have also prepared estimates of expenditure, operating principles and other strategy documents which will guide our work in discrete areas.
The library’s collections (particularly electronic) have been significantly upgraded to meet researcher and client needs.  We have developed an initial portfolio of information and research services and products which will be rolled out on a phased pilot basis during the fourth quarter of 2006.
Staff recruitment and organisation
The staff of the Service will increase from twelve (in November 2005) to thirty by the end of the summer.  We have recruited an additional Information Assistant, Research Librarian and four Contract Cataloguers.  Interviews are currently being held for a number of subject specialist Senior Researcher and Researcher posts.
Library and Research Service staff will be organised into four teams of subject specialists with each team comprising one Senior Researcher and two Researchers (law, economics, social science and public administration & politics).  Research Librarians and Information Assistants will shadow these research teams in specific subject areas.  There will also be a team of Librarians with specialist information management skills and a team of Information   Assistants   responsible   for   the
 procedures relating to the Documents Laid before the Houses.  New and existing staff will attend a structured induction and training programme together. 
Library and Research Service staff will be based in newly refurbished offices in a building close to Leinster House (the Irish Parliament building).  We worked with the architect to create an open plan office space which we hope will facilitate communication within and between teams.
Next steps
The next six months will be equally busy with the relocation of staff to their new offices, the recruitment of new staff, delivery of induction/training to all our staff, the scoping and delivery of information and research services and products and marketing the new service. 
It will continue to be ‘all change’ in the Oireachtas Library and Research Service for some time to come.
Madelaine Dennison
Head of Library and Research Services

House of Commons Library
Some key new activities 2005-06
Library and Reference Services
• A combined Helpdesk Service for Members and their staff was instituted in May 2005.  This included a single telephone enquiry service serving all Library users (replacing separate numbers for Members and their staff), a new layout in the Members’ Library and consolidation of collection management activities.
• New guidance to staff on enquiry handling was produced.
Research Services
• A major review of the briefing on legislation that the research service produces was carried out.  The recommendations will be implemented from November 2006 onwards.
• A longer-term strategy for the research service was drafted and is currently under discussion.
• Talks on topical issues by subject specialists, mainly aimed at Members’ staff, became a regular service.
• More briefings (Standard Notes on devolution and the Crown) were made available on the Internet.
Databases
• The main PIMS (Parliamentary Information Management Services) applications went live in April 2005. These replaced and expanded POLIS, our bibliographic database, and include full text of much parliamentary material.  This was not the smooth transition from POLIS that we had hoped for, with a large number of initial problems in automatic feeds processing, searching and content management.  Most of these were tackled through the rest of the financial year.
• A review of indexing and information management in PIMS was carried out, and work is now continuing to implement or develop its recommendations.  These include looking at the conceptual framework for indexing and the reworking of thesaurus structures and content; shifting indexing towards the end user; and integrating PIMS indexing processes earlier in the production timescale.
• The Library is leading a project to make historical volumes of Hansard from 1803 onwards available on the Internet.  Scanning of printed volumes and text conversion work to facilitate search and retrieval will take place over the next two years.  It is planned to make the scanned material available free of charge via the Parliament website.  Anyone who is interested in this project is invited to contact Edward Wood on:
woode@parliament.uk
• Library ICT staff were transferred to a new Parliament-wide ICT service from the end of 2005.
Client relations
• A new Library visual identity was introduced and is gradually being applied to all material.
• A new user-friendly brochure, Using the Library, was issued and distributed widely.
• A survey of Members retiring at the general election was carried out to assess their views on services.
• A ‘contact officer’ scheme for newly elected Members was initiated. This reached 50% of all new Members.
• Contact with constituency-based staff was expanded greatly, leading to a special open day for such staff in June 2006.
• Four Library ‘Open Days’ for users were organised in autumn 2005.
• A number of promotions and exhibitions of Library services were held in Portcullis House and new publication displays installed in a number of parts of the Parliamentary Estate.
Services for the public
• The Education Unit was expanded with two new Communication and Outreach Officers to develop an outreach programme to schools and LEAs, as part of a major Parliament-wide push to improve services to the public.
• The Education Unit’s Autumn Visits programme is being expanded to a year-round one, with two new staff posts.
• A new ‘quick guide’ to the coming week’s business, Commons Knowledge,  was launched.
Staff
• A staff attitudes survey was carried out in the Library in July 2005.

Rob Clements
Director of Research Services

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre
Since the last conference, which we had the pleasure of hosting, SPICe has undergone a period of change and review in a number of areas.  Most of this has had positive and constructive outcomes, but some areas are still unresolved.
The Head of Research and Information since its inception, Janet Seaton, left on a six months assignment to lead a corporate project on information management.  She was replaced for that period by Lee Bridges. whose background includes Committee Clerk Team Leader and Principal Private Secretary to the Presiding Officer.  The Scottish Parliament now has an information management strategy and vision, and a programme of implementation projects led by the Director of Access and Information.
Jean Smith, our Information Services Manager, left for pastures new, and it was decided to review the structure and functions of the whole information services team to ensure that when we recruited her replacement, we had aligned the remit to best meet future demands on the service.  The recommendations from this review, which include some team restructuring, are still being implemented.
We have been reviewing the impact of FOI legislation on the organisation at the end of its first year of implementation.  We receive an average of 25 FOI requests per month.  Approximately 60% of requests come from members of the public, 40% from journalists or media representatives.  The most popular subject, accounting for about a third of all requests, has been that of the allowances claimed by individual MSPs.  We’ve been involved in developing the recently launched Allowances Search database on our website, and in the accompanying SPICe User Guide.  As well as showing what each MSP has claimed under each type of allowance, it also displays the relevant receipts.  As far as
we know this is a world first in making this information transparent to the public.
We completed the first phase of our client liaison programme.  As expected, it has produced a wealth of useful qualitative feedback which we are now able to use in developing our services.
A joint working party of clerks and researchers published a guide to good practice in supporting the work of Committees.  This sits alongside our existing Protocol, and shares examples of good practice in a variety of detailed situations.  It also makes recommendations for future action.
Janet Seaton
Head of SPICe

The Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Library Service
Since the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly in October 2002 the Research & Library Service has balanced the on-going (but much reduced) business demands with locating new clients that exploit and develop staff expertise while delivering value for money. The transition to this new business basis has presented interesting challenges.
Following suspension demand for library services dropped to less than half of the level experienced during normal business. Library acquisitions and stock retention activities have continued at their normal levels - though many digital reference services have been discontinued.
A small number of library staff have been out-posted to fulfil library functions within government departments.  However, given the now extended period of suspension staff loss from the library is now approaching a critical level.  At the time of suspension recruitment to fill vacant posts in the library was halted. Immediately following suspension one librarian resigned   and   more   recently  four  Assistant
Librarians have been lost. Library staffing now consists of 5 full-time and 3 part-time staff.
Research business was more severely impacted by suspension. Three months after suspension 6 temporary research staff were let go. The 19 research staff remaining has now reduced to 8 who are partly working on responding to Member queries and Assembly business and partly working on civil service research projects. Another 9 research staff are either seconded or out-posted to other employers.
Until recently, Member queries were restricted by the Secretary of State to address Member constituency concerns only. Since the passing of the N.I. Act (2006) established an interim “Assembly” an increase in service demand has occurred. Library business is approximately 50% of what it was during normal business and Member research queries have also shown a sharp increase (not least due to the removal of the constituency business limitation). Difficulties persist in liaison with government departments since departmental communication offices have not been restored.
The interim Assembly is set for a limited duration (terminating on November 24th 2006) and to date its business has been erratic. Plenary debates have not occurred on a regular basis and only a single committee (apart from the Business Committee) has been formed. Committee based research demand has yet to emerge. The Service is currently engaged in preparing research papers relevant to motions forwarded by the Business Committee to the Secretary of State.
John Power
Head of Research & Library Service
 
The National Assembly for Wales Members’ Research Service
Following a White Paper in June 2005, the Government of Wales Bill 2005 was introduced in December, taking forward proposals on the future governance of Wales. At the time of writing, we anticipate the Bill receiving  Royal  Assent  before the  summer  recess or in the early  autumn.  The two main elements affecting us are:
• the introduction of a procedure to give the National Assembly far greater legislative powers (essentially the power to make primary legislation, but obtained via a rather tortuous route in each case); and
• the formal separation of the parliamentary and governmental arms of the Assembly.
Hence, from the Assembly elections in 2007, we anticipate being part of a far smaller organisation (around 300, rather than 6,000) employed by our own Assembly Commission rather than the Civil Service and serving a parliamentary body with, effectively, primary legislative powers. Our hearts flutter at the very thought.
Against this backdrop, some of the significant developments and activities in the last year have been as follows:
• Members have taken a keener interest in primary legislation affecting Wales. This has been reflected in a greater legislative focus to the work we provide to committees and in a monthly report to our Business Committee and Panel of Chairs on the content of Bills affecting Wales and the degree to which they will allow the Assembly to develop distinct Welsh policy;
• our working relationship with the Executive has deteriorated. A year ago, a Code of Practice was approved, requiring the Executive to be open and helpful in their dealings with us and to allow the free flow of information to Members. In practice, this has broken down to such a degree that it is now almost impossible to obtain even the most basic information from some parts of the Assembly Government;
• we have been heavily involved in modelling, and advising Members on, the practical implications of operating a committee system in small legislature;
• the Members’ Library now functions almost entirely independently of the Welsh Assembly Government library service. Once we have procured the IT system on which our Library catalogue will sit, separation will be complete;
• the role of researchers in committee work has become more firmly embedded. Researchers now routinely sit at the table in committee meetings and are directly involved in meetings with Chairs and clerks to shape agendas and committee business;
• we have introduced a more strategic approach to the consideration of EU issues in committee, led by our EU Policy Analyst in Brussels. A second member of staff has been appointed to the Brussels office;
• we restructured the research teams and seconded a public finance specialist from the Northern Ireland Assembly in order to establish a new, expert team to strengthen the advice provided to Members on financial and statistical matters;
• we have established a regular focus group with Members’ support staff to obtain feedback on our service. We provided training on budget scrutiny to 38 of our 60 Members;
• a senior researcher was seconded for the year to improve the way that we support Members and committees on equality issues;
• we introduced a series of ‘Quickguides’ for Members, which address technical or complex topics in an accessible, easy to read way;
• the Assembly Parliamentary Service’s Access to Information Officer recently transferred to the Research Service, bringing with her responsibility for matters related to FoI.
Adrian Crompton
Head of Members’ Research Service

The House of Lords Library
On 1st February 2006 Dr Elizabeth Hallam Smith took up the new post of Director of Information Services and Librarian in the House of Lords, on the retirement of the former Librarian, Mr David Jones. The new department includes the House of Lords Library, the House of Lords Information Office and the Parliamentary Archives. Dr Hallam Smith's remit also covers broadcasting, public education and visitor services for the Lords.
The new department is currently working towards a development plan to better share information and find synergies across these areas. We are also working more closely with colleagues in related House of Commons departments, particularly the Commons Library.
Isolde Victory
Head of Research Services
 
Specific Issues
Devolution Monitoring
In December 2004 two of my colleagues (Smith and Oag (2004) produced an internal paper which reviewed the Scottish Parliament’s requirements with regard to monitoring the progress and impact of devolution in the UK and for information and knowledge on constitutional issues and issues which affect the Parliament as an institution.  The report concluded that the main requirement was advance notice of legislative and relevant business in Westminster which might affect Scotland or the devolution settlement.
In April 2005 a new temporary post was established in SPICe Research to look into the provision of research support in the areas of parliament, constitution and devolution. Part of the remit was to look at SPICe services in response to the findings of the Scottish Parliament Procedures Committee inquiry into the Sewel Convention and to follow up on other aspects of the internal report into devolution monitoring.
Tracking UK bills
For the first task I looked at the evidence from the inquiry and spotted 3 distinct requirements from MSPs:
1. Advance notice of bills, of interest to the Scottish Parliament, in order to allow influencing as early in the process as possible.
2. Access to all the relevant Bill documents throughout the progress of the Bill at Westminster
3. Help from SPICe Research to carry out scrutiny of the Scottish Executive memorandums on the Bills and an explanation of the subsequent changes to the Bill after the Scottish Parliament had agreed to the UK Parliament legislating on their behalf in the devolved area.
I decided that the third issue would require extra work for colleagues in Research which I could not commit to, so I concentrated on the first 2 requirements. I had meetings with the interested parties in the Parliament, spoke to the Scotland Office, investigated free and commercial websites and attended a series of training courses run by Westminster Explained.
Bills at Westminster
By the time of the Queen’s Speech on 17 May 2005 I had the basis of the service developed. I decided that there would be two categories of Bills which I would track: ones which had been identified as definitely requiring a motion on legislative competence to be decided in the Scottish Parliament (then called a Sewel Motion, subsequently called a Legislative Consent Motion (LCM)) and those I thought would be of interest to the Scottish Parliament. The width of that interest has grown and now covers:
• Bills which could be subject to a Legislation Consent Motion or have been the subject of a lodged Legislative Consent Memorandum
• Bills which affect Scotland
• Bills which only affect England and/or Wales but are of comparative interest because they deal with devolved matters
• Bills which repeal a UK Act for England and Wales but the provisions for which remain in force for Scotland
• Private Members Bills which have a Scottish dimension
• Private Bills which have a Scottish dimension
I created tables of information on these 2 categories which are updated weekly, using mainly the free sources on the UK Parliament website. The information includes hyperlinks to any consultation documents, all versions of the bills, Hansard reports, committee reports and any other relevant documents. The tables are placed on our intranet, SPEIR.
The majority of UK Bills are not tracked but the decision on which Bills are tracked is open to interpretation and a Bill may move from the ‘not tracking’ to ‘tracking’ within a day, e.g. Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which became the subject of a Legislative Consent memorandum. For the Bills we definitely will not be tracking I have put together a list of sources which help our clients to carry out their own tracking.
Potential Future Bills
Having established the procedure for Bills which had been introduced I then turned my attention to trying to identify potential future Bills, by looking at the consultations being carried out by UK Government Departments. I created a table of Consultations, initially by using the Cabinet Office’s Consultation Index, but this task is now more time-consuming as the Index has been
replaced by links to each of the Department’s websites, which vary in content and usability.
As with Bill tracking, the criteria for selecting which consultations to list has expanded and now includes consultations where the Scottish Executive or a Scottish organisation is listed among the consultees, relevant UK Parliament Committee inquiries and European Commission consultations.
Marketing
In order to increase the usage of the service I gave presentations to my colleagues in SPICe and then contacted each of the political party research teams and offered similar presentations. I then produced a SPICe User Guide to the service which is also available on the intranet.
Future joint working
I have arranged for all the tracking documents which are currently housed on our intranet to be made available on the IPRIN website. This service could be an area of resource sharing especially when the National Assembly of Wales starts its own legislative programme. I would be interested to hear from colleagues on the possibility of joint working.
Devolution Monitoring
When I started looking at this area of my work I found that most of the research had been carried out on the Scottish Executive and its activities, e.g. comparing its policy development with the other devolved governments and the UK Government. At the time there was little in the way of reports on the working or impact of the Scottish Parliament so I began to consider what would be useful measures to show the Parliament’s place in the devolution picture.
I was trying to identify appropriate quantitative measures, while avoiding the ‘league table’ form of statistics. But what I became more interested in was trying to find appropriate qualitative measures. David Beetham has recently produced a table of an IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) publications which might be a useful starting point for deciding which  quantitative and qualitative measures should be used (see Figure 1.1 in Beetham (2006)).
Again I believe that this is a suitable area in which the research and information services
of the UK and the devolved Parliament and Assemblies could collaborate and would be very interested in pursuing some joint discussions on how to proceed.
Sources
Beetham, D. (2006) Parliament and democracy in the twenty-first century: A guide to good practice Geneva: Inter-Parliamentary Union. [online] available at:
http://www.ipu.org/dem-e/guide/contents.htm [accessed 8 May 2006]
Smith, C. and Oag, D. (2004) Review of the Parliament’s information requirements in relation to Parliament, constitution and devolution: report of findings.
Tracking UK bills:
http://www.iprn.net/Tracking%20UK%20bills/Forms/AllItems.aspx
Francesca McGrath
Senior Research Specialist
SPICe
 
Ecological Footprint of the 2005 IPRIN Conference
Ecological Footprinting was devised in the early 1990s and is now used all over the world to assess sustainability. Footprinting quantifies the amount of energy and raw materials used to support an individual, organisation, region, country, process or event, and how much solid, liquid and gaseous waste is generated. Footprinting then converts this into a measure of land area required to produce all those resources and absorb all the waste that is produced.
In May 2005, with support from the Sustainable Development Commission Scotland, and after a fair amount of internal dialogue, the decision was taken to measure the Ecological Footprint of the 2005 IPRIN Conference. Delegates were asked to fill in a travel questionnaire. The questionnaire answers, together with other figures relating to gas and electricity use, food and waste were evaluated by consultants to produce the IPRIN Conference Footprint. This shows that the conference did, as would be expected, have an environmental consequence, and
 
that the Footprint per delegate was larger than a normal office worker in Scotland, and much larger than the equal ‘earthshare’ per person, although it was smaller than the average lifestyle footprint for people in Scotland (which includes after work activities). Not surprisingly, a significant proportion of the conference Footprint was as a result of domestic and international flights.
The Footprint message was distributed internally through avenues such as the Chief Executive’s monthly message, and was warmly received by environmental organisations such as WWF Scotland. Broader use of the results and exploration of wider use of Ecological Footprinting in the Scottish Parliament is being explored. The Footprint was published in February 2006 and can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/research/EcoFoot.pdf. A supporting SPICe Briefing on Ecological Footprinting can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/research/briefings-05/SB05-40.pdf
Graeme Cook
Senior Research Specialist
SPICe Research