HUMZA Yousaf has been accused of treating Holyrood "with contempt" after revealing details of a plan to tackle Scotland's ambulance crisis to a newspaper.
The SNP Health Secretary was criticised after aspects of a statement he was due to deliver in the Scottish Parliament appeared in the Daily Record this morning.
Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone said it was "extremely disappointing" that he had not told MSPs first, as is expected.
Speaking in Holyrood, she said: "I consider this a very serious matter.
"Given that I can't be sure that all members will have seen this coverage, I will, in this instance, allow the statement to be made.
"But if there are similar instances in future, I reserve the right not to allow the minister to deliver the statement but to move straight to questions from members."
She said she would look into the matter further.
Responding, Mr Yousaf said: "Presiding Officer, as I hope you will appreciate, it was never my intention to cause you or indeed this chamber any issues when speaking to the media ahead of my statement today.
"Let me offer an apology to you but also the chamber if issues were caused and my assurance, of course, that we will take the necessary steps to ensure that this does not happen again in the future."
Scottish Conservative chief whip Stephen Kerr said: “Humza Yousaf has treated the Scottish Parliament with contempt by going to the media with a statement that should have been delivered to MSPs first.
“Government policy must be announced to Parliament in the first instance, as the Ministerial Code demands.
"It’s especially galling since Nicola Sturgeon last week insisted that the public and Scottish Parliament had to wait until Tuesday to hear how the SNP Government would fix the scandal in our ambulance service.
“We have raised this directly with the Presiding Officer to ensure that parliament is always respected and this sort of disrespect does not happen again.”
Mr Yousaf told the Daily Record he would announce an additional £20 million in funding for the Scottish Ambulance Service.
He said Scotland's fire service had also agreed to help.
It comes after the Scottish Government called on the army to support Scotland's struggling ambulance service.
The Herald previously told how a frail pensioner found collapsed at his home in Glasgow died following a 40 hour wait for an ambulance.
The family of Gerard Brown, 65, said they had been told the delay cost the former engineer his life.
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