Holyrood 2026: The big issues

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In last year’s Festival of Politics, alongside the Centre for Public Policy, we held a forward-looking panel looking at the big policy challenges facing the Scottish Parliament. Now we reconvene that panel to ask what lies ahead in session 7? With tightening fiscal constraints, rapid technological change and persistent socioeconomic pressures, MSPs face a complex and interconnected set of challenges – where easy policy wins are in short supply.

Bringing together expertise in governance, poverty, economics and technology, this panel will explore where the biggest risks and opportunities lie, and how our policymakers might navigate these challenges.

Chair: David McGill, the Clerk/Chief Executive of the Scottish Parliament

Speakers:

Professor Nicola McEwen, Director of the Centre for Public Policy, Professor of Public Policy and Governance

Professor Graeme Roy, Professor of Economics at the University of Glasgow and Chair of the Scottish Fiscal Commission

Professor Bridgette Wessels, Professor in the Sociology of Inequalities, with expertise in technological change

Professor Morag Treanor, Professor of Social Policy and Inequality, with expertise in poverty and inequalities, particularly with children, young people and families

Please note there will be no admission after 5.00pm, so please arrive before then to get through security.