Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone has suspended parliament after details of John Swinney's budget were leaked to the BBC ahead of his statement.
The Deputy First Minister was due to set out his tax and spending plans at 2.25pm.
However, the Presiding Officer instead said she needed another 30 minutes to investigate.
Notably, the First Minister was not in her seat, suggesting that she had been speaking to Ms Johnstone as part of the deliberations.
The Presiding Officer has always been quite strict that major announcements from the government are shared with MSPs before the media.
In June, she stopped Angus Robertson from making a statement on independence after significant details were briefed to press beforehand.
After details appeared on the BBC's website just after noon, a number of MSPs raised points of order with Ms Johnstone.
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said she had previously “been very clear that it is a matter of courtesy to the chamber that major government announcements are made firstly, to this chamber and not to the media.”
“We are expecting at 2.25 this afternoon a budget statement from the Deputy First Minister to this chamber.
"However, currently, the BBC Scotland website is reporting in detail tax changes that will be brought forward in that budget statement, including increasing the higher rate of tax from 41p to 42p and increasing the additional rate from 46p to 47p and reducing the tax threshold for the top rate from 150,000 to 125,000.
“I'm sure you would share my concern and dismay, that this has been communicated to the media apparently, rather than firstly to the chamber.
“Will you, therefore, instigate an immediate investigation into the source of this leak to the BBC and ensure that proper courtesy is shown to the members of this chamber by the government?”
Ms Johnstone said she had made it “very clear on many occasions” that the government should make “significant announcements” to the parliament first.
Similar points were raised by Labour’s Neil Bibby and by Tory MSP Stephen Kerr. He asked Ms Johnson to insist Mr Swinney “apologise to this parliament.”
Ms Johnstone promised to investigate and report back.
According to the BBC's report, the Deputy First Minister is set to increase the Scottish rate of income tax for anyone on the higher rate, meaning that anyone earning between £43,663 to £150,000 will now pay 42p in the pound.
The top rate - currently for earnings over £150,000 - will go up from 46p to 47p, the corporation said.
They also said Mr Swinney was due to follow the lead of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and lower the threshold for the top rate to £125,000.
That would be a significant departure from the SNP's manifesto at the last Holyrood election, where the party said it would “freeze income tax rates and bands”.
Asked after First Minister's Questions if she was about to break a manifesto commitment, Nicola Sturgeon did not deny the report but said the country was now in very different time to last year.
She said: “John Swinney will set out the budget later this afternoon, and he will set out our position on tax as he will on spending.
“The only thing I would say, in general terms here, is that we are in times right now that are very different to the times, even in the Scottish Parliament election last year, and we need to take actions that protect public services, protect the most vulnerable, and protect that transition to net zero which is so important to the economy as well as the environment.”
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