By John McCormick, Chair of the Commission on Parliamentary Reform

IN his famous Ripple of Hope speech, Robert Kennedy memorably said: “Like it or not we live in interesting times”. This is true of Scotland today. Since the Scottish Parliament was officially opened in 1999 the Scottish political landscape has changed dramatically and the parliament has also had to change and evolve with this landscape. And with new powers such as taxation and social security coming to the Scottish Parliament and further potential changes on the horizon, these interesting times look set to continue.

As the Presiding Officer, Ken Macintosh, said when he established the Commission on Parliamentary Reform, the time is right to look at the how the parliament operates and interacts with the people of Scotland.

The commission has met with a huge number of people since it first met in November. We have travelled throughout Scotland to hear from community groups and organisations and we have taken formal evidence from academics, politicians – including former first ministers – and the third sector. What has become clear is that there is not one set idea of how the Scottish Parliament should look and how it should operate.

One of the issues which has been raised time and again is the issue of how the parliament can scrutinise the wider powers but do so within the resource-constrained world in which we currently live. In other words, how can its capacity be increased? For some people, capacity will mean only one thing: more MSPs.

This was something which was raised with us by two former First Ministers. Henry McLeish wrote to the commission that the current number of 129 MSPs is “incredibly limiting”. More recently, Alex Salmond said that there should be a “relatively modest increase” in the number of members. It is not just former First Ministers though; the Royal Society of Edinburgh said in its evidence that “a serious debate must take place over whether a 129-member chamber is truly sufficient for Holyrood to undertake all of the functions the Scottish people require of it”.

A parliament that is agile and can robustly and effectively scrutinise the work of the Scottish Government is something we all want but, despite the views of some of the more high-profile witnesses to the commission, whether there is a widespread appetite for more members is another issue. Looking at international comparisons, there are arguments on both sides. Compared with some of the Nordic countries, Scotland has relatively few members. When compared to the New Zealand Parliament, Scotland appears to be well served by the number of elected representatives within its parliament.

One of the key issues that the commission has to look at is capacity and what this actually means in practice beyond the headline-grabbing subject of more MSPs. From speaking to people, and from the evidence we have received, it is clear that for most people this is about more than the number of elected representatives.

Capacity is about the ability and scope of committees to scrutinise legislation, it is about the ability of the parliamentary week to effectively consider all the issues before it and it is about the ambition of the parliament to engage with the people of Scotland – particularly those most affected by issues

which the parliament seeks to remedy.

How we ensure all of this can happen will be a key focus of the commission as it begins to write its report and recommendations to the Presiding Officer. Are more members really the solution to the capacity issues or can these be addressed by the parliament working more effectively within its current resources? Much of the evidence we have received would suggest that more MSPs is not the solution but this is the sort of issue we will be considering over the coming weeks. Indeed, should we go further and recommend extending parliamentary hours, increasing the resources available for scrutiny (be they staff, more outward engagement or bringing in external expertise)?

Whatever the commission recommends it will be informed by the views of the people of Scotland – those who work with the parliament regularly and those who don’t. We have heard from people across the country about what the parliament means to them and how it can improve.

This commission is a very real opportunity to influence how the Parliament should reflect Scotland today. We have heard from people across Scotland about how it should work and how best it can shape its decisions to reflect the ever changing landscape.

The report is due to be published in late June.