Customer story: National Assembly for Wales

Collecting evidence for scrutiny

In the wake of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, the National Assembly for Wales began considering options around the future support for agriculture, land management and rural communities in Wales. The Assembly set out to gather robust evidence to present to the Scrutiny Committee.

To assist with this process, The National Assembly for Wales chose to open up the conversation to the public, online – using Dialogue to set a challenge and invite people to submit their ideas.

The Assembly was able to generate wide-reaching engagement and collect input on an expansive range of issues: from sustainable log supply to changes to milk prices.

Bringing together a geographically diverse range of people

Dialogue allowed the Assembly to offer a collaborative platform to gather ideas and bring citizens into the discussion regarding the future of agriculture across Wales.

The Assembly Dialogue makes use of bilingual content, well-structured discussion points and clear direction regarding the scope for input ensuring that it was accessible across the board.

By using an online platform, the Assembly could collect input from a geographically-diverse range of people from across the country. This approach also helped ensure that participation was open to time-poor citizens, and those living in rural communities.

Providing a platform for collaborative discussion

By using an effective and engaging online platform, the Welsh Assembly were able to add to their body of evidence to present to the Scrutiny Committee, with dozens of ideas and comments from people with a stake in the decisions under consideration.

The ideas collected online were aggregated with evidence collected in other ways, and all put forward for consideration by Members of the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee. This process in turn helps the Committee write its report on how principles can be developed to underpin a new agriculture and rural development policy for Wales, keeping in mind the input and priorities of its citizens.