Parliamentary engagement
In the last week there are have been 2 conferences which have facilitated dialogue with the Scottish Parliament. Last Friday it was Business in Parliament and on Wednesday it was the turn of Science in Parliament.Business in Parliament
The Business in Parliament conference is an example of an
event which impacts on Government policy and shows the advantage of engaging
with politicians. Both Alex Salmond, the
outgoing First Minister, and John Swinney, the Finance Minister attended and
addressed the conference, stating that ideas generated by participants had led
to changes in government policy. These
ideas had come from business representatives in attendance at the conferences which
have been running for eight years and are jointly organised by the Scottish
Parliament Economy Committee and the Scottish Government.
Many other Minsters were in attendance and chaired workshops
to encourage business participants to
share ideas and issues with the government. This showed the willingness of the
government and MSPs to listen and act on business issues.
The conference also showed the government interest in tech
business both in terms of the speeches and workshop topics. The First Minster highlighted the innovation
centres and in particular the opening of the eighth centre which deals with big
data. He said the innovation centres had
been set-up to tackle the challenge in performance between the research base in
universities and the lack of impact on business. A workshop also addressed businesses of the
future.
Science in Parliament
The Science in Parliament conference is another annual event
which has been running for a number of years and took place at Dynamic Earth.
Alasdair Allan, the Science Minster, in addressing the
conference said that the government supported scientific endeavour. He then
pointed out that Scotland ranks 4th in the OECD countries for
research funding and that Scots performs well in the Science PISA analysis of
School pupils.
The theme of the conference was Science education and
included research which showed a lack of funding for Science in schools
compared to England. This research was covered in the media which also
highlighted the conference.
In the afternoon a panel of MSPs from all parties addressed
the conference and took questions from the audience. All parties stated their commitment to
Science and education, recognising the need to increase the number of
scientists in the workforce.
These conferences show that politicians and the government
are keen to engage and will develop policy based on the experience of business
people.
Dr Tony Axon is Director of Positive Spin and can get your views on Science and technology and other policies to the decision makers and politicians.
