Scottish Parliament Academic Fellowship Scheme

Scottish Parliament Academic Fellowship Scheme

We invite fellowship bids on the following topics.

Health and Social Care Partnerships

Health and Social Care Partnerships (Integration Authorities) – 31 local partnerships operational from April 2016 have been set up across Scotland to manage £8 billion of health and social care resources. As these are ‘new’ partnerships this is a new area of scrutiny for the Parliament. A fellowship which examines Health and Social Care Partnerships and considers the following questions is invited. Howdo these partnerships operate? How should they operate? How can the Scottish Parliament effectively scrutinise these partnerships?

Medical devices

It is estimated that there are over 90,000 types of medical devices on the market in the UK. These range from non-invasive support products such as bandages, to implanted devices such as pacemakers and breast implants. The regulation of medical devices is a reserved matter to the UK Parliament and is governed under a number of European Directives. In recent years, high profile cases involving implantable devices has intensified the focus on the effectiveness of current processes, and what is needed to improve them. While regulation is reserved, decisions on what can be used in the NHS in Scotland is devolved. Therefore a fellowship examining how current regulation interplays with the appraisal processes for medical devices would be welcomed. Once approved for use, how do devices come to be used in NHSScotland? Within the current regulatory framework what oversight can the NHS in Scotland have? Are there examples of good practice internationally that Scotland can learn from?

The UKs decision to leave the EU

The UKs decision to leave the EU raises many questions that the Scottish Parliament will have to address. We are particularly keen to receive bids for Fellows related to the following questions:

1. Critical examination of and expertise on the workings of EU institutions (Council, Commission and Parliament) and the EU Treaties. EU decision-making and the likely approach to dealing with Article 50.
2. How the UK may leave the EU i.e. the use of the Great Repeal Act.
3. Sub-states and their powers, particularly in relation to external affairs and agreement of international treaties.
4. Trade agreements and international trade law.

A future framework for fishing and coastal communities in Scotland

The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) forms the basis of the rules under which EU fisheries are managed. It is intended to ensure the sustainability of the EU’s fishing industry by managing fish stocks as a shared resource.

Shellfish fisheries form an important aspect of the Scottish fishing industry, with recent annual values of over £90 million. Shellfish comprise crustaceans (including lobsters, crabs) and molluscs (such as scallops, cockles and mussels).

A fellowship proposal that examines possible future options for Scotland’s fisheries outside the EU is invited. The fellowship could consider the economic, environmental and social aspects of options identified, examining all forms of sea fishing.

Embedding climate change scrutiny across the Scottish Parliament

In 2009 the Scottish Parliament passed the Climate Change (Scotland) Bill unanimously. A further Climate Change Bill is expected early in 2017. Meeting the targets set out in legislation requires interventions across multiple sectors. Issues associated with competing, and sometimes conflicting, priorities also need to be addressed in a coherent way.

The Scottish Parliament have developed a number of approaches aimed at integrating the scrutiny of climate change issues across multiple committees.In reviewing the success of this mainstreaming approach the Scottish Parliament’s previous Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee (RACCE) concluded that:

‘..there needs to be a wider mainstreaming of climate issues across committees…there is clearly work to be done to… stimulate a step-change across the Parliament...’

A fellowship proposal to identify options and approaches that could inform and strengthen the Scottish Parliament’s scrutiny of climate issues and be applicable to parliaments elsewhere is invited.

The Scottish Parliament have developed a number of approaches aimed at integrating the scrutiny of climate change issues across multiple committees. This includes work on

• The Scottish Budget:Focusing on the Parliament’s scrutiny of the Scottish draft budget the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee backed an approach that encouraged multiple committees in the parliament explore the implications of the draft budget proposals on Scotland’s approach to mitigating and adapting to climate change. In their legacy report (March 2016) the Scottish Parliament’s previous Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee noted that:

‘The Committee quickly realised at the start of this session that it would not be able to effectively scrutinise all of the Scottish Government’s spending that impacts climate change, given that there is spending across the remit’s of many other committees.’

• Report on Policies and Proposals (RPP2): The Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee (RACCE) developed and then led a new process which saw four parliamentary committees join forces to scrutinise the document - collaborating on the call for views, managing of written and oral evidence and reporting. The Committee recommended that:

‘Successor committees should look to collaborate with other committees on a case-by-case basis as there are likely to be times when doing so would be hugely beneficial to the Parliament in terms of delivering beneficial and effective scrutiny.’

The fellowship proposal would focus on how considerations about climate change can be most effectively considered in the parliamentary process and learn from approaches to date and experience elsewhere to identify how the Scottish Parliament can support good climate governance.

Diversity of Committee Witnesses

The aim of this project is to

a)Produce an international literature review of “representation of the public in Committees” including research design, methodologies, results, limitations, risks, etc. (see an example of research by Democratic Audit in the UK Parliament) – this includes research, writing up, peer reviewing and taking on board comments

b)Produce a paper on “options for research on the diversity of witnesses in the Scottish Parliament” – this will consist of two or three “research proposals”. Each proposal should explain how it would structure research aiming to “measure” the past quality of “representation” of witnesses in Committees (research design including methodologies, proposed timescale for data collection, etc.). Each proposal should explain how it/they differ from the other(s) in terms of assessment of “representation”, what the benefits of that approach would be, limitations, etc.

These papers will be considered by the Scottish Parliament to assess and potentially take forward a research project based on the options.

Sentencing policy and practice in Scotland

This project would look at issues around the consistency and effectiveness of sentencing in Scotland. For many years, sentencing has been a controversial subject in Scotland and in many other jurisdictions. The public is often critical about perceived leniency in sentencing while also concerned about the size of the Scottish prison population. Over the last 17 years, the Scottish Parliament has legislated for a number of alternatives to custody and alternatives to prosecution, including making available various types of fine, community sentence, home detention curfews and other orders. The Scottish Government has stated a desire to extend the presumption against the use of short custodial sentences, introduced by the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, and has established the Scottish Sentencing Council to improve the consistency of sentencing in Scotland.

A fellowship proposal could include carrying out a review of the recent debate on what works, for example, comparing the effectiveness of short custodial sentences with community sentences, examining the sentencing of particular groups (eg women and young offenders), and could also include an element comparing sentencing policy in Scotland with that of similar jurisdiction.