London Met Repository

How public engagement can strengthen the work of parliamentary committees: learning lessons from the experience of the Welsh parliament

Lists

Tools

Stirbu, Diana (2022) How public engagement can strengthen the work of parliamentary committees: learning lessons from the experience of the Welsh parliament. The Parliamentarian, 4. pp. 334-336. ISSN 0031-2282

[+][-]

Abstract

Public engagement remains an under-explored area of parliamentary activity, although Parliaments worldwide have intensified their efforts to redefine their relationship with their respective publics of late. They have done so by improving their public information provisions, external communications, outreach and education initiatives, as well as the ways in which they consult with a wide range of communities, individuals and organised stakeholders, and the extent to which they reflect the public’s voice in their deliberations and outputs. Nevertheless, there are still questions regarding the effectiveness of public engagement (how we measure and maximise impact), as well as the extent to which Parliaments successfully manage to reach out to and engage with a wide range of individuals, going beyond the ‘usual suspects’, and diversify the range of evidence they tap into. This article presents findings from this work, as it relates to the public engagement function of the Welsh Parliament.

Documents