The Scottish Parliament

21 November 2009

Parliamentary Business

Visit, Learn, Interact

Business Bulletin

Committees

The Chamber

Current Bills

Official Report

This week in the Scottish Parliament

What's New?

Site Search

Advanced Search

Motions Lodged

Questions (PQs)

Recent News

	Holyrood welcomes grassroots organisations for unique conference
	Commission recommends approval of Audit Scotland's budget
	Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill receives qualified support from Justice Committee
	Holyrood welcomes its two-millionth visitor
	Treatment of female offenders should be re-examined says committee
	A week of learning at Holyrood
	Scottish Parliament news RSS feed

Petitions System

Other Websites

Holyrood tv

The Scottish Government

UK Parliament

Welsh Assembly

Northern Ireland Assembly

European Parliament

Commission on Scottish Devolution

Languages

Job Vacancies

Recruitment Pages

Video round-up — launch of Scots-Canadian exhibition at Holyrood
Graeme Murdoch and Harry McGrath of Cultural Connect Scotland talk about This Is Who We Are — a photography exhibition exploring the connections between Canada and Scotland through people and places which opened recently at Holyrood. Exhibitions at the Scottish Parliament Read our news release on the exhibition launch Click on the picture to watch the video >>

Conference aims to empower community groups

As part of a range of activities to mark the 10th anniversary of devolution, the Scottish Parliament will host an innovative one-day conference for local community groups at Holyrood on Saturday.

The aim of the Understanding & Influencing Your Parliament conference is to help smaller, local groups gain skills to allow them to campaign more effectively, and to increase opportunities to have their voice heard at Holyrood. The day will focus on practical advice and guidance, looking at what works and what doesn’t in terms of successful and effective campaigning.

Around 130 attendees are expected from across Scotland. The day will begin with a short welcome from Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson MSP in the Debating Chamber.

All proceedings in the Chamber will be broadcast live on Holyrood.tv.

Find out more:

Read our news release on the conference | Understanding & Influencing Your Parliament | Community Partnerships

Holyrood Highlights

This week's Holyrood Highlights includes reports on:
• Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing MSP's statement to Parliament on the Scottish Government's sectarianism strategy
• Stage 3 proceedings of the Arbitration (Scotland) Bill
• the Public Petitions Committee's evidence session with Nicola Sturgeon MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, on the availability of cancer-treatment drugs

There is also an interview with European and External Relations Committee convener Irene Oldfather MSP on the inquiry into the EU Budget review.

Murdo Fraser MSP and David Whitton MSP are the studio guests.

Find out more:

Archive of previous programmes | Highlights of the 2009 Festival of Politics

Listen to Parliament podcasts

The Parliament produces podcasts covering a range of subjects. Recent recordings have included:

• MSPs – in their own words. Produced by our Public Information Service, this podcast features short interviews with six MSPs about their day-to-day work, official positions and reasons for embarking on political careers. The interviews are available individually as mini-podcasts.
• An introduction to the public petitions system. Convener of the Public Petitions Committee Frank McAveety MSP explains who can submit a petition, clarifies what's admissible as a petition and gives a brief overview of the Committee's work.

Visit our Podcasts page for more information.

Find out more:

Public Petitions Committee | Public Information Service

Today's education visits

Our education programmes are run for schools, colleges and other educational groups who are interested in finding out more about the work of the Scottish Parliament. On Friday we welcomed pupils from:
• St Joseph's Primary near Glasgow
• St Bride's Primary in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire

In addition, Parliament staff held classroom sessions at:
• St Thomas Aquinas Secondary in Glasgow with Bill Butler MSP
• Alves Primary School near Elgin, Moray with Mary Scanlon MSP
• Culter Primary School in Aberdeen with MSPs Nicol Stephen and Maureen Watt

For more information on school visits, please visit our Education pages where you will also find resources to help with school work and interactive games.

Find out more:

Education at the Parliament