With so many changes coming down the line for the Senedd elections, we have also been playing our part in communicating the changes. We have convened the Democracy Group Cymru since 2020, which brings together organisations representing either newly enfranchised voters or working with those less likely to be registered. We now have around 90 organisations as members and in October we held a briefing for civil society on the changes, featuring speakers from the Senedd’s Research Service, the Electoral Commission and the Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru.
In October we also held a briefing for journalists on the Senedd changes, which was attended by journalists from across the UK. Our aim with this is to ensure media coverage around the election next year is well informed, given it is likely that more attention will be paid to the Senedd elections than in previous years due to the political changes taking place.
Towards the end of the year, we planned an event in conjunction with the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA), looking at how to make the most of the additional capacity more Members of the Senedd will bring. This featured speakers including former First Minister, Mark Drakeford MS, and Elin Jones MS, the Presiding Officer of the Senedd.
Institutionalising Citizens’ Assemblies
Our project of a citizens’ assembly for Dunfermline was included in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2025 and received the funding it needed to go ahead. This initiative – jointly run with Fife Council & the Scottish Government and working in partnership with local people, community groups and institutions – gives a new way for the people of Dunfermline to influence the future of their city. Our hope is that due to the selection of the assembly by sortition, it will be those whose voices are usually unheard who get to be the loudest. It will meet across three weekends in early 2026 – once in January, twice in February – to explore the question: “We all want Dunfermline to be a great place to call home. As our city grows and develops, how do we continue to improve our community for today and tomorrow?” You can read more about the assembly and sign up for updates here – dunfermlineassembly.org
This will be Scotland’s first city-level citizens’ assembly, but our intention is to show that these processes can be embedded into local authority decision making in affordable and constructive ways. So, while we get on with setting up and running the assembly, we are having it independently evaluated by LSE, the report of which we will disseminate to further show how these citizen-led decision making processes can be implemented sustainably across the country.
Beyond the Constitutional Binary
Over the last few years, ERS Scotland has been working on a project that is exploring ways that the debate about Scotland’s constitutional future can be taken forward in inclusive and constructive ways. This work culminated in April with a conference titled: A Scottish Spring – Building a democracy fit for the 21st Century. We brought together a range of civic organisations, democracy campaigners and academics for a public discussion on polarisation, populism and the future of the Scottish Parliament after 25 years of devolution. Here you can read more about it, including a film of the day, plus our exclusive polling and Herald front page story.
The event was the first public outing after a period of roundtable discussions with the speakers and organisations involved. In the coming months there will be further opportunities for such an approach, as Scotland enters into key set of Holyrood elections, which will see the entry of new parties, new challenges and new opportunities in democratic space.
Building a Local Scotland
In September of 2024 a group of academics, trade unionists, former council leaders and journalists launched Building A Local Scotland to tackle the creeping centralisation that has left Scotland as one of the least locally governed countries in the world. ERS Scotland has been a key partner in this campaign for a revamped local democracy that puts power in the hands of communities.
This year the group has been focussed on developing plans and strategies to take the conversation forward. As part of this, Building A Local Scotland engaged with MSPs through a briefing in the Scottish Parliament, addressed by veteran local democracy campaigners. The campaign also had speakers at our ERS Scotland hosted fringe meeting at Scottish Labour conference. In addition, we conducted meetings with key academics and organisations in the field and engaged with COSLA. A consistent feature of the discussions included the need for a set of principles and a more detailed vision for a transformative approach to the function on local democracy in Scotland.
To this end, Building A Local Scotland convened relevant think-tanks and thought leaders on the topic for a day of planning and reflection on the major themes needing addressed. The outputs will help to form the platform for a package of materials aimed at policy makers, the media and the general public. In addition, it will form the basis for influencing manifestos and Intervening in the May 2026 election.
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