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The Parliamentary Engagement Working Group (PEWG) is a committee of General Meeting for Scotland which is the organisation of Quakers in Scotland. Together with our Parliamentary Engagement Officer (PEO) we work on behalf of Quakers in Britain to engage with the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament and a range of Scottish political and public audiences in order to bring about change.
The work of the Parliamentary Engagement Working Group draws upon Quakers’ longstanding and deeply held belief that there is “that of God in everyone”. Our vision is of a peaceful and sustainable future built on just relationships between people and with the earth. The work is our testimony to living out our faith in the world and is rooted in our core values of Peace, Equality, Truth and Integrity, Simplicity and Sustainability.
Quakers in Britain employ an Edinburgh-based Parliamentary Engagement Officer (PEO) to carry out this work in the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. In July 2023 we were delighted to welcome Sarah Komashko into post as our new Parliamentary Engagement Officer. Sarah produces an occasional email newsletter she sends to Friends who are interested in opportunities to engage with parliamentarians. Please email her on SarahK [at] quaker.org.uk if you are interested in receiving these short emails.
All Area meetings in Scotland are represented on the PEWG (see below for list of members).
The priorities for the work of the PEWG are discerned by General Meeting for Scotland and are:
Advocacy briefings for each of these three topic areas, written by our former Parliamentary Engagement Officer to help us all when contacting our representatives, can be found by clicking on these links: Climate Justice; Economic Justice; and Peacebuilding. You can read a round-up of the work we did in 2023 here.
We also respond to opportunities which arise in the Scottish Parliament. Other areas which have received attention are
- Land reform
- Peace Education in Scottish schools
- Human Rights
- Prisoner Voting Rights
- Children’s Rights
- Tax
- The Arms Trade
- Israel/Palestine
Members of the Parliamentary Engagement Working Group are:
- Carolyn Burch (North Scotland AM, Joint Convenor)
- Richard Raggett (North Scotland AM, Joint Convenor)
- Ed Tyler (West Scotland AM)
- Tanya Jones (East Scotland AM)
- Cath Dyer (South East Scotland AM)
- Carol Jennings (South East Scotland AM)
