THE RECALL of Parliament should be extended so ministers can face questions over care home admissions and 10,000 Covid deaths.

Neil Findlay, Labour MSP, has written to Holyrood's presiding officer urging him to allow parliamentarians to put questions to Nicola Sturgeon and Jeane Freeman about the handling of the pandemic.

In an email on Saturday, Mr Findlay asked Ken Macintosh if he would grant an extension to tomorrow's recall, supposed to be for paying tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh, to allow for coronavirus matters to be discussed.

He wrote: "I understand that parliament is to be recalled on Monday to mark the passing of the the Duke of Edinburgh.

"Given that MSPs will be back and parliament in session, I am requesting that following the tributes will you allow for a break and then make time for MSPs to question the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Health on the Covid death toll reaching 10,000 and the new admission by the Cabinet Secretary that mistakes were made in the discharge of untested patients to care homes.

"These are matters of huge national importance.

"At no time in the last year have Ministers accepted they made mistakes in their care home discharge policy, now this has been admitted then MSPs must be able to hold those in power to account."

READ MORE: Health Secretary Jeane Freeman admits moving patients into care homes was Covid 'mistake'

His request comes after Health Secretary Ms Freeman acknowledged Scottish Government failings over care home discharges during an interview with journalist Nick Robinson last week.

Speaking on his podcast, Political Thinking, she was asked where the government had gone wrong with the pandemic and said: "We wanted people who didn’t need to stay in hospital any longer - because they’d been treated and they were clinically well - to be discharged as quickly as possible, so we freed up those beds for Covid patients.

“Remember, the early predictions about the number of people going into hospital were terrifying actually.

“But we didn’t take the right precautions to make sure that older people leaving hospital going into care homes were as safe as they could be and that was a mistake.

“Now, I might argue we couldn’t do anything other than we did and all the rest of it, but it still created a real problem for those older people and for the others who lived in care homes and for the staff who worked in care homes."

Ms Freeman's comments caused widespread criticism from opposition parties.

Despite the request for an extension Presiding Officer Mr Macintosh denied any additional time be granted for questioning ministers tomorrow.

He responded to Mr Findlay: "The Parliament is being recalled, in line with other UK legislatures, to allow members to pay their respects to His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh.

"As discussed at yesterday's Parliamentary Bureau meeting, this will be the only business of the day.

"While I do appreciate your desire to enable members to question the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary on the matters you raise, the campaign recess arrangements aim to ensure fairness to all candidates standing in the forthcoming Scottish Parliamentary election."

Mr Findlay told The Herald that he was disappointed with the presiding officer's response, and said: "Parliament will be recalled tomorrow to pay tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh. It is my view that there should be a break after that and then MSPs can reconvene to hold ministers to account for 10,000 Covid deaths and the admission that mistakes were made over care home discharge policy.

"That would be MSPs doing the job they were elected to do."