Comparative Table of Parliamentary TA Institutions
SWEDEN - THE PARLIAMENTARY EVALUATION AND RESEARCH UNIT
Organisation
Technology assessments often
concern more than one committee. The Riksdag´s work with issues
relating to the future therefore, wherever possible, is carried out at
a cross-committee level. The committees are to cooperate in initiating
joint technology assessments. The committees´ proposals and requests
are submitted to the PER, which can assist in conducting the analyses.
This will promote a coordinated management of issues relating to the
future. The committees are encouraged to cooperate actively and to
inform each other and spread examples of best practices, for example,
at chairmen´s conferences and meetings of committee secretaries.
The PER works on the behalf of the committees and has thus not
the mandate to initiate large projects of its own. Within the framework
of a proposal the unit can, however, propose focal points and methods.
Two full-time scientists are employed at the unit and external experts
can be hired for scientific support and for writing background
material. The unit also has one person who is mainly responsible for
organising workshops, seminars etc. In addition, two temporary staff
members, one via a fellowship-scheme and the other via an internship,
work at the unit.
In most cases, an all-party steering group is assigned to
provide guidelines for a TA assignment and to ensure that they are
carried out in accordance with the Committee´s terms of reference. A
contact person from the Committee secretariat is assigned to assist at
the meetings with the reference group. A group of experts is also
assigned to scrutinise the content of the reports.