Some Holyrood committees are too big and meetings last too long, MSPs argue

Some Holyrood committees are too large and are causing sessions to become long-winded, a number of MSPs have said.

Certain Scottish Parliament committees have as many as 10 MSPs sitting on them, with some politicians arguing for committees of five or seven to provide more “nimble” meetings.

In a somewhat self-reflective inquiry, the Standards Committee is reviewing the effectiveness of the whole committee system at Holyrood.

On Thursday, it heard from representatives of all the political parties on how committees could be more effective.

Douglas Ross, a former Scottish Conservative leader who is now Education Committee convener, said a number of committees are simply “too big”.

He said: “When you have a 10-member committee and a panel of four or five, it can be very difficult to get through your sessions on time, as I proved yesterday when we went about an hour-and-a-half over.

“We believe all committees should be either seven or five (members) and that would allow more focused questions from members.”

Willie Rennie, a former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, agreed, saying: “I’m for smaller ones because you get much more agile, nimble committees.”

He also urged parties against rotating members frequently, saying MSPs should be allowed to build up experience in a particular field to avoid a “stultifying” experience.

Green MSP Ross Greer said he understands the argument for smaller committees but stressed the need to preserve “proportionality” – where parties have roughly an equivalent number of seats in line with their election results.

There was disagreement among the party representatives on whether committee conveners should be elected by all MSPs.

Currently, Parliament decides which political party will have convenorship of each committee – and the parties will decide which MSPs sit on the committee.

Labour’s Rhoda Grant said having elected conveners would reinforce their independence and ensure they are a “committee person rather than a party person”.

But the SNP’s Karen Adam said such elections would lead to more party politics being introduced into the process.