Time to reform ‘rubbish’ Holyrood committees

Britain / 4 September 2026 HMRC threatened with legal action over illegal Israeli settlement trade 4 September 2026 Cost-of-Living Crisis / 4 September 2026 Gas price spike could further raise energy bills, households warned 4 September 2026 Britain / 4 September 2026 Government urged to protect Britain's food supply by public spending watchdog 4 September 2026 Scotland / 4 September 2026 Scottish wildfires: SNP requested military support they knew didn't exist, Justice Secretary says 4 September 2026 World / 4 September 2026 Falklands tensions sees Miliband accused of ‘selective support’ for international law 4 September 2026 Latin America / 4 September 2026 Cuba Solidarity Appeal raises more than half-a-million pounds 4 September 2026 A LEADING think tank has called for reform of Holyrood committees as former ministers express “disappointment” and having to field “rubbish” questions from opposition members.

In a new report, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has argued that change is needed in system to restore trust in politics after listening to the views of MSPs who stood down in May’s Scottish Parliamentary elections.

“Anonymous MSP 1” offered damning testimony on the effectiveness of Holyrood committees, telling researchers: “If you go as a minister to be interrogated by the opposition or backbenchers, the greatest disappointment is always how rubbish their questions are because they’re all sitting on their phones, you get to their shot, they ask a pre-prepared question.

“It’s either political or general most of the time. And then they go back to scrolling on Twitter.”

Another MSP, “Anonymous MSP 2,” added: “You have legislation that grows arms and bells and whistles.

(During recent debates) “I was thinking, I cannot believe we’re actually accepting or agreeing to this amendment that, in one line, will give somebody a headline but will cause a huge tail-end of policy issues.”

Researchers also found that experience on committees was also wanting, with the average MSP spending between one-and-a-half to two years out of their five-year term on any single committee, a situation they argue limits MSPs ability to gain sufficient expertise to properly scrutinise legislation or the executive.

Calling for a new Citizens’ Commission on Scotland’s Democracy to offer citizens a formal role in reform, IPPR Scotland’s Dave Hawkey said: “Scotland faces formidable challenges, from cutting emissions and mitigating the impacts of climate crisis to managing the ageing population and reducing inequality.

“Low trust in politics is a major barrier to building the consensus we need to successfully guide Scotland through these changing times… if citizens lack trust in politics, they will not agree to pay the taxes we need to fix our shared problems.”

Welcoming the report, a Scottish Parliament spokesperson said: “When the Presiding Officer was elected, he made it clear that reforming Parliament and renewing its relationship with the people needed to be top priorities.

“Encouraging greater trust in our political institutions is a shared responsibility and we welcome the IPPR’s contribution to this important debate.”

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