Scottish Office: Mainstreaming Equal Opportunities

Mainstreaming Equal Opportunities

Parliamentary Committees - devolved parliaments

Figure 7 summarises details of parliamentary committees with responsibility for gender equality/ equal opportunities in the devolved parliaments of European Union member states. There are specialist committees in two out of 9 Austrian Landtag; two out of 6 Belgian regions/communities; 13 out of 16 German Landtag; and two out of 17 Spanish autonomous regions.

Figure 7: Equal Opportunities Committees in Regional Parliaments

Country	Parliament	Committee Title
Austria	Steiermark	Youth, Family and Women’s Issues
Austria	Wien	Integration, Women’s Issues, Consumer Protection and Personnel
Belgium	Walloon	Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities between Men and Women
Belgium	Flanders	Working Group on Equal Opportunities for Men and Women
Germany	Berlin	Employment, employment education and women
	Brandenburg	Work, Social Affairs, Health and Women
	Bremen	Equal Opportunities for Women
	Hamburg	Equal Opportunities
	Hesse	Women, Employment and Social Order
	Lower Saxony	Equal Opportunities and Women’s Issues
	Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania	Employment, Health, Social Policy, Family and Women
	North Rhine Westphalia	Women’s Affairs
	Rhineland- Palatinate	Women’s Affairs
	Saarland	Women, Employment, Health and Social Policy
	Saxony	Social Affairs, Health, Family and Women
	Schleswig-Holstein	Constitution, Interior Administration, Justice, Equality of Opportunity, Housing and Urban Development, Standing Orders, Review of Elections and Voting.
	Thuringia	Equality of Opportunity
Spain	Madrid	Women’s Affairs
Spain	Valencia	Women’s Affairs

Roles and Functions

Some general points on powers and competencies of equalities committees may be drawn from generic information about committees in specific parliaments (see, for example, the companion USGS summary of devolved parliaments). The power of parliamentary committees varies widely amongst different countries, there are also variations within systems. However committees may have some or all of the following roles and functions:

call evidence/ require attendance from ministers and civil servants
hold public hearings and public enquiries
call evidence from outside experts
consult and receive submissions from groups and individuals
commission research
publish reports and minutes of evidence
scrutinise government legislative proposals
propose amendments to government legislative proposals
discuss and draft proposals for legislative change
call debates in parliament
monitor and evaluate government policies and their implementation
monitor and evaluate government performance

In some systems, government is required to submit proposed legislation to committees for scrutiny and committees have wide ranging investigative powers. In other systems, committees are consulted on the basis of goodwill or custom and practice. In some systems the powers of committees are standard to all and are enshrined within the constitution or standing orders. In other systems each incoming parliament may determine the terms of reference, membership and powers of its committees.

In an attempt to provide some more specific information in this area, we had to go beyond the ‘desk-based’ nature of the research brief. We compiled a short questionnaire on the work of equal opportunities committees and endeavoured to find the appropriate parliamentary contacts across Europe. In order to find case studies of direct relevance to a devolved parliament such as Scotland we particularly sought out the experience of devolved/regional parliaments. This process was complicated enormously by the fact that all parliaments in Europe were in recess during the time-span of the project and that it was annual holiday time in France, Spain, Italy and Belgium. The following summaries provide basic information on the powers and roles of specialist committees in 1 Austrian and 5 German Länder. They cannot be assumed to be typical and again it should be noted that the timing has led to a preponderance of North European case studies. Clearly a great deal of further primary research is required in this area in order to compile a complete picture of comparative arrangements for ‘mainstreaming’ equal opportunities in the work of parliaments.

Interviews were conducted with:

Germany

1. Frau Kirschner

Bürgerschaft Bremen

2. Herr Dr Hans-Andreas Kroiß

Landtag - Hessen

Ministerialrat

Ausschuß für Frauen, Arbeit und Sozialordnung

3. Herr Lang

Landtag - Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Ausschuß für Arbeit, Gesundheit, Soziales, Familie und Frauen

4. Frau Kuck

Landtag Niedersachsen

Ausschß für Gleichberechtigung und Frauen

5. Frau Astrid Hopstein-Menn

Landtag - Nord Rhein Westfalen

Ausschuß für Frauen, Beruf und Familie

Austria

1. Frau Kienzle

Rathaus Wien

Gleichberechtigungsbeauftragte

Their responses are summarised below.

Equal Opportunities Committees: Case studies of devolved parliaments

Wien (Austria)

The committee in Vienna is consulted on proposed legislation, although it is not clear from the information available whether the committee is routinely consulted or whether it must request that it is consulted on certain types of legislation. It is concerned with the gender impact of legislation and also the (neutral) wording of proposals. It may propose amendments. Its powers are not based on any legal regulations, rather on tradition. In practice, it may scrutinise proposed legislation ‘ whenever it wishes to do so’. It has, however, no authority to call public consultations or public enquiries.

The committee calls upon a wide network of expert advisers and publishes reports. It also works very closely with the equality machinery in the executive. ‘We are in constant contact. Co-operation is vital in order to ensure co-ordination’. The committee does not have the role of monitoring the overall performance of the government in achieving equality goals.

Bremen (Germany)

Bremen’s equal opportunities committee has no legal basis in the parliament, although equal opportunities legislation is enshrined in its constitution. It may request information about legislation, but has little power. Its role in scrutinising legislation tends to be limited to proposals upon which there is disagreement within parliament and its scope to propose amendments is unclear (rather than individual members of the committee). Its reports are debated in parliament and are available to the public. It has the power to hold public consultations and public enquiries.

The committee receives specialist support from outside experts, usually academics. They have close links with the Women’s Commission, equality machinery which works at arm’s length from the government.

Committee members feel their brief from parliament is too vague and their powers and influence are too limited. They would like the committee to have a legal basis.

Hesse (Germany)

The committee in Hesse has the power to call evidence from ministers and civil servants and may invite written evidence from experts and representatives of interest groups. It also has the power to hold public consultations and public enquiries.

The committee scrutinises proposed legislation for gender impact and can suggest amendments to proposed legislation.

The committee receives specialist advice from outside experts and specialists within the parliamentary secretariat. It sees part of its role as monitoring and scrutinising the performance of the government overall in terms of achieving gender equality goals.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Germany)

The committee in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has the right to call evidence and to question any minister or civil servant. Furthermore if a third of the committee members wish to do so, the committee must call evidence. It may also seek advice from outside experts. In addition, party factions have the right to send their representatives to the hearings although they do not have speaking rights.

It is not clear from the information available whether the committee may initiate public enquiries. It may not call for parliamentary debates but its reports are usually discussed in parliament.

Proposed legislation, usually relating to the Ministry for Social Affairs is referred to the committee for scrutiny after the first reading. Amendments are presented to parliament at the second reading.

There is no equality machinery at executive level and the committee relies upon outside expertise such as academics. The parliamentary committee sees itself in the role of monitoring the performance of the government overall in terms of achieving gender equality goals.

North Rhine Westphalia (Germany)

The committee in North Rhine Westphalia has the power to call the attendance of ministers and civil servants to give evidence, both oral and written. It can hold public consultations and public enquiries and frequently invites experts to consultations.

It scrutinises proposed legislation for gender impact and has the right to suggest amendments. There are usually three readings of proposed bills in Parliament. The committee has the right to intervene in these readings and propose amendments. Reports and minutes of evidence are published and debated in parliament.

The committee is supported by outside expertise, depending upon the subject matter. It also works on a daily basis with the equality policy machinery in the government.

It sees its role as ‘definitely’ one of monitoring the overall performance of the government in relations to gender equality.

Lower Saxony (Germany)

Legislative proposals may be presented to the committee for a public hearing in place of its first reading in parliament. The committee holds a public hearing. It has the power to call evidence from ministers and civil servants and to question them. It also consults with outside experts, academics and representatives of interest groups. The conclusions of its consultation are presented to parliament along with any proposed amendments. Parliament may refer legislation to the committee after a first or second reading. The committee does not have the right to call parliamentary debates.

There is no equality policy machinery at executive level and the committee receives support from outside specialists.

The committee scrutinises the overall performance of government in terms of equality specifically via compulsory reports, which are based on equal opportunities-legislation.

Equal Opportunities Committees and the European Parliament

A Committee on Women's Rights has existed in the European Parliament since 1979 when the first direct elections were held. The committee has acted as a catalyst for a number of different types of initiative. For example, the committee has been particularly active in highlighting the under representation of women in decision making and championing gender balance in the European Parliament, the Commission of the European Union and its member states. The committee has commissioned and produced surveys and reports. It has also acted as an internal lobby. As a result of considerable pressure from the committee, women MEPs and the European Women’s Lobby, the Secretariat of the European Parliament now has an Equal Opportunities unit and regular statistics are produced.

The Committee on Women’s Rights was also instrumental in highlighting that the European Commission’s ‘gender neutral’ approach to policy and practice produced at best slow change in the disadvantaged position of many women. This was given formal recognition at EU level in the 1980s when the campaigning of the committee together with the European Women's Lobby, assisted by the Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men and the EC equal opportunities Unit, resulted in the creation of positive action measures (Medium Term Community Action Programmes on the Promotion of equal opportunities for Women and Men), with dedicated, if limited, finance.

The role of parliaments and parliamentary committees in research and awareness raising

Many of the parliamentary initiatives reported in the literature concern the commissioning of research on the status of women in general (economic and social position, role in public life) or on the specific issues facing women and men in equity groups (eg. male and female migrant workers). Parliaments have played a very significant role in establishing baseline data. For example, the regional parliament of Extremadura in Spain commissioned and published the first survey of women in the region based on a questionnaire given to a representative sample of the female population of the region.¹¹ The Republic of Ireland has a joint parliamentary committee on women's rights (JCWR) involving members of both the Dail (lower house) Seanad (upper house). It has had an important awareness raising role in its reports and its role in commissioning major pieces of base-line research. Parliaments and parliamentary committees have also been active in promoting greater representation of women in decision making (within parliaments, executives and ministerially appointed public bodies and advisory committees) and in putting issues such as domestic violence and the international trafficking of women and children on the political agenda.