Written evidence
The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee can seek views to inform its consideration of petitions.
Written evidence helps the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee understand more about the issues in a petition including:
- information about the petition
- any challenges and solutions
- whether the petition is realistic
- other work that might be happening to address the petition
Requirements
Your evidence must be:
- about the action the petition is asking for
- no more than 1000 words
- accurate
- received by the deadline we give you
We cannot publish some information. This includes:
- information about a local, personal, or individual matter (like a specific complaint made to an organisation)
- names of other people or information that makes it clear who someone is, unless that person is an MSP or senior leader (like the chief executive of an organisation)
- language that is offensive, defamatory, or inappropriate (for example swear words, insults or sarcasm)
- copies of correspondence (including letters and emails) between yourself and other people – please summarise these in your submission
- copies of correspondence between other people (for example an e-mail conversation between your MSP and an organisation) – please summarise these in your submission
- copies of Freedom of Information responses – please summarise these in your submission
- photographs
- copies of legislation or statutory guidance – please send a link to these
- information that is copyright
- information about cases that are being considered by the courts or will be soon
- links to webpages with commenting sections (like news articles)
We check any views we receive to make sure they meet these guidelines before we can publish them. If we cannot publish what you send us we will let you know why and give you the chance to change what you wrote.
Petitioners’ views
If you are the petitioner, we may ask you to send your views as we look at your petition. This may be:
- to respond to other evidence
- if there is new information to share
Please make sure anything you send us is new information and not something you have sent before.
A maximum of two written submissions can be provided between considerations of your petition. In exceptional circumstances, more than two written submissions may be accepted if it is clear that the information being provided will add substantially to the Committee’s consideration of a petition.
Views from organisations
If you are sending views on behalf of an organisation, the submission is published under the organisation’s name.
Unsolicited material
The Committee does not normally accept unsolicited written submissions. In exceptional circumstances, if the Committee feel that the evidence will add substantially to their consideration of a petition, an unsolicited written submission may be accepted. In addition to the requirements above, this type of evidence must also meet the requirements below.
Additional requirements
Your evidence must:
- demonstrate that you have relevant expertise in, or experience of, the issues raised by the petition
- not repeat or substantially overlap with information or views contained in existing submissions (or other material) about the petition
- not be part of or appear to be part of an organised campaign to show support for, or opposition to, the petition by encouraging people to send in multiple, similar submissions.
- be directly relevant to the ask of the petition
More information
You can read the privacy notice on submitting your views which explains how we will treat your submission.
If you have any questions, including how you can make a submission in another format (e.g. large print), please contact the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee team:
email: [email protected]
telephone: 0131 348 5254