BACKBENCH MSPs will be able to quiz Scottish Government Ministers on their response to the Covid-19 pandemic at a virtual question time.
Holyrood’s Presiding Officer, Ken Macintosh, has announced the first ever members’s virtual question time will take place on Friday at 2.30pm - as well as a second virtual FMQs, which will be held on Thursday at 12.30pm.
Further discussions will be held between parties and the Holyrood bureau over proposals to set up a “dedicated Covid-19 committee” which could meet virtually.
Last week, party leaders were able to grill First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at the first leader’s session, but backbench MSPs raised concerns they were not being given a chance to hold the Scottish Government to account during the pandemic.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: Nicola Sturgeon investigating English PPE claims as Matt Hancock cancels meeting
In the new members’ virtual question time, up to 19 MSPs will be able to question four Cabinet Secretaries, including Health Secretary Jeane Freeman on the response to the crisis. Nine of the questions will be made available to SNP politicians.
Mr Macintosh said: “I am now pleased to confirm that the bureau has agreed to schedule the Parliament’s first ever members’ virtual question time on Friday, when up to 19 members will have the chance to put questions to four of the Cabinet Secretaries most deeply involved in leading the Scottish Government’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
READ MORE: Virtual FMQs as it happened: Nicola Sturgeon confirms Covid-19 death toll rises to 447
“Again, trialling new technology, the session will start at 2.30pm with a very brief opening statement from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, Jeanne Freeman, before opening to questions from individual members.
"We expect the question session, which I will chair, to last for up to one hour and, as usual, questions will reflect party balance with nine questions for SNP members, five for Conservative members, three for Labour, and one each for the Greens and Liberal Democrats.”
He added: “I know that members share my view that we must strike a balance between enabling our parliament to continue to function effectively during this uncertain and difficult time, while ensuring we don’t put others at undue risk.
READ MORE: Scottish Parliament to hold virtual First Minister's Questions
“In exploring new technologies and extending virtual scrutiny arrangements to more and more members and to different formats, I believe we can successfully strike that balance.
“Again, I want to thank party leaders, business managers and parliamentary officials for working with such speed and efficiency to enable us to build on the successes of last week.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel