5 Going digital
34. This Parliament has seen a major change in committees'
use of digital technology, in particular as a tool for engagement
and influence. Much has been done to improve committee websites
so their work is more accessible to interested parties. Committees
have used more varied content on websites to inform and engage
different audiences, including greater use of audio-visual material.
Written evidence to committees is now submitted electronically
via the website and published more quickly on the internet. This
has enabled savings to be made in no longer printing evidence
on paper. Many committees now receive their documents not on paper
but through iPads. Committees have started to experiment with
publishing the outcome of their work in different ways, with greater
focus on, for instance, infographics and audio-visual material
which is primarily accessed and used digitally. In the next Parliament,
the increasing emphasis on digital outputs and reduced emphasis
on printed reports is likely to change the way committees work
and have implications for the procedures which support and enable
that work.
35. The Energy and Climate Change Committee is the
first Committee to explore a "digital first" approach
for the publication of a committee report. Its legacy report,
Fuelling the debate: Committee successes and future challenges,
was scoped from the outset with consideration given to the digital
output. The report includes an infographic on Committee activity
over the last five years, video case studies of Committee successes
in specific subject areas, and video interviews with key stakeholders
on the challenges for the next Parliament. The report is hosted
on a standalone website that is device-responsive and it is also
downloadable as an interactive pdf or ePub.
36. We recognise that we are at the early stages
of a long journey in terms of the transition to "digital
first". We expect select committees to take further strides
early in the next Parliament, and the key appointments of new
staff to head the Parliamentary Digital Service and the Department
of Information Services to provide an opportunity for committees
to learn from the experience of other organisations and do even
more to harness what technology has to offer.
Social media and public engagement
37. The first example of a committee using Twitter
was the Education Committee with the hashtag #AskGove to encourage
people across the country to suggest questions which could be
put to the then Secretary of State for Education in an oral evidence
session before the committee. That example has been followed by
others and many committees now use Twitter to publicise their
inquiries and evidence sessions and also to engage with other
users of Twitter. Committees are followed on Twitter to varying
degrees.
38. While there are some risks in committee staff
using Twitter in a politically controversial environment, we believe
the benefits of them doing so have proved worthwhile. Some committee
members themselves have been active in using Twitter to promote
their work.
39. Dr Cristina Leston-Bandeira, Senior Lecturer
in Legislative Studies, University of Hull, told us that select
committees had improved both their website and social media presence
since 2012 but that greater presence of committees outside Westminster
and better integration with schools was needed.[14]
40. Towards the end of the current Parliament there
have been important innovations in the use of digital media as
part of committees continuing efforts to improve and broaden their
public engagement. The Education Committee has experimented with
an additional member of staff concentrating on social media work.
This has allowed the Committee to use a wider range of tools to
engage the public and others in its inquiries, ranging from a
web forum which attracted over 500 contributions to online videos
which received several thousand views. The Committee now has in
excess of 7,500 twitter followers, who engage in live twitter
conversations about evidence sessions and reports. Social media
activities are built into all inquiries and this has enabled the
Committee to increase awareness and to encourage participation
in its work, although we appreciate that those committees with
small teams of staff may not be able to provide such a level of
service.
41. The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee
has used enhanced social media activity alongside a series of
events, surveys and competitions to maximise public participation
in the consultation it launched on the United Kingdom's future
constitution under the banner of A new Magna Carta? The
Committee and the organisations with which it has worked have
managed to multiply the levels of engagement with this work, including
very welcome participation by students at schools and universities.
42. We are aware of the recommendations of the Speaker's
Digital Democracy Commission, whose report was published on 26
January 2015.[15] Many
of these recommendations chime in closely with the recent initiatives
to which we have referred and they help to give us a clear steer
for priorities in the next Parliament as well as endorsing the
progress committees have made since 2010. The main proposals were:
· Increasing awareness and understanding
of Select Committees and their work
· Increasing the accessibility of Select
Committee communications and publications
· Encouraging greater public participation
in Select Committee work, including among under-represented groups
· Making information available in an open
format and without charge.
43. Not all public engagement initiatives need be
digitally based. The Science and Technology Committee has pioneered
an annual event called Voice of the Future in which young scientists
are recruited through the learned societies to sit at the horseshoe
and put questions to the Committee as well as the Government Chief
Scientific Adviser, the Shadow Science Minister and the Science
Minister. All four events this Parliament have been opened by
the Speaker and recorded by the BBC; this year it was broadcast
live on BBC Parliament. The event has worked to both engage young
scientists with policy issues and with the work of the Committee.
Planning for how we communicate
with the media and the public
44. The last five years have seen select committees
grow in their public profile. In 2012 committee evidence sessions
on parliamentlive.tv overtook the Commons Chamber in terms of
the number of viewers. There has been a significant increase in
the range of media coverage of the work of select committees,
which is not an end in itself but helps to broaden public understanding
of the work of Parliament and to focus minds in Whitehall. In
2012 we recommended that select committees introduce media and
communications strategies as part of inquiries, so that more consideration
is given to the audiences for the work of select committees, and
to enhance engagement throughout an inquiry and subsequently,
moving away from undue focus on report publication as an isolated
event.
45. We expect there to be further changes in approach
in this area in the next Parliament, building on recent developments
including the greater use of audio-visual material about individual
inquiries. This is unlikely to involve a major change in the levels
of coverage, after the step change achieved in this Parliament.
It may involve exploring further the support given for chairs,
on whom the main burden of communicating with the media and the
public usually falls. We also need to develop linkages between
support for social media activity and the continuing support for
other media and communications activities.
46. To assist select committees in communicating
their reports, it would be helpful to widen the range of people
to whom committees can provide embargoed copies of reports. At
the moment, other Members, for example, unless they were also
witnesses, are not included. There is a case for relaxing the
present requirement that embargoed copies are released no more
than 72 hours before the time of publication. It would also be
consistent with practice elsewhere to allow, but not require,
committees to give advance notice of intended personal criticism
to individuals. This practice is commonly adopted by other forms
of public inquiry, but is not currently available to select committees.
47. We recommend that SO No. 134
(Select committees (reports)) be amended to read:
All select committees shall
have power:
(a) to authorise the clerk of
the committee to supply copies of their reports under embargo
to such persons as those committees consider appropriate after
those reports have been reported to the House; or
(b) to make known to any
individual whose conduct the committee intends to criticise the
nature of such criticism, before it has been reported to the House.
14 Dr Cristina Leston-Bandeira, Senior Lecturer in
Legislative Studies, University of Hull (SCE 0023) Back
15
The report can be accessed at www.digitaldemocracy.parliament.uk Back
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