EVIDENCE in the short inquiry over Scotland's ability to test for coronavirus has been kept under lock and key, because it was felt that it would allow more people to testify.
The committee led by the Scottish Labour convener, Lewis Macdonald also went into secret session on Wednesday to consider certain evidence, after the health secretary Jeane Freeman and Caroline Lamb, the director of the test and protect portfolio spoke to the MSPs in an open session.
A Parliament spokesman said: "Decisions on anonymity or otherwise are taken by the Committee convener. The rationale for this was to ensure people felt confident to fully disclose any issues in detail that they may have faced."
The short inquiry approach was aimed at understanding how restrictions can be "substantially eased when the number people across Scotland who have had or have the virus is unknown and remains unclear".
A call for view on testing capacity and strategy ran from May 6 to May 20.
Other similar examinations through Citizen Space have a process where groups, experts and the general public can choose to make their observations anonymously - although it may not be accepted.
But the Parliament stresses: One of the founding principles of the Scottish Parliament is transparency and openness.
"It is standard practice for the committee to publish your submission on the committee’s webpage on the Scottish Parliament website.
"Once the submissions are publicly available, the committee may also discuss them in meetings or use them to demonstrate a point of view in written reports."
It says that contact details like email addresses provided will not be published but may be used by the Parliament to contact you about your response or to provide you with further information about the committee work.
People can ask committees to treat their views in what is described as a "non-standard way" either anonymously or they can be treated as 'confidential' and are not published online or referenced in any reports.
But rules over submissions state: "The final decision on whether your views will be accepted either anonymously or as a ‘not for publication response’ is for the committee to take.
"If the committee turns down your request for your submission to be processed in a non-standard way you can choose to withdraw your submission at that stage."
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