MSPS have voted to note the findings of a report by the Citizens Assembly of Scotland.
The group, which was broadly representative of the country at large, was set up to devise a vision for the country, eventually producing 60 recommendations.
The vision and recommendations were agreed by an overwhelming consensus of members, and cover a wide range of areas including future citizens’ assemblies, incomes and poverty, tax and the economy, health and wellbeing, support for young people, sustainability and further powers for the Scottish Parliament.
The process was put on hold in March due to the impact of Covid-19 and resumed in September last year with its remit unchanged.
MSPs voted by 89 to 29 in favour of a Scottish Government motion to note the report.
The motion was amended by both Labour’s Anas Sarwar and Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie, to include references to the report’s recommendations on inequality and climate change respectively.
A Conservative amendment, tabled by Dean Lockhart, stating that different political parties would have different views on the recommendations, passed unanimously.
Following the report’s publication last month, Assembly members met virtually to discuss their vision and recommendations with ministers from the Scottish Government.
The report of the Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland can be read online at citizensassembly.scot.
Earlier this week, the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Futures Forum held an event convened by the Presiding Officer which brought together members of the Assembly, a political panel and a number of MSPs to discuss and consider the vision and recommendations of the Assembly ahead of the Parliamentary debate yesterday.
Convener Kate Wimpress said: “Our report sets out a shared vision for Scotland’s future and a bold, imaginative set of recommendations for how we start to build it.
“This is the result of many months of hard work, carried out by our ‘mini-Scotland’ of members from all walks of life.”
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