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Presiding Officer warns government on leaks to press |
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Wednesday, 31 October 2007 |
The Scottish Parliament’s Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson, has issued a warning to the Government about announcing statements to the press before they have been made to the Parliament.
“It is with some regret that I have to say that concerns have been
brought to my attention that the content of this afternoon’s statement
has been covered in press reports this morning. Not for the first time
have these concerns been raised,” he told MSPs in the Chamber.
The statement in question was to be made by Deputy First Minister and
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Nicola Sturgeon shortly after 2pm, on housing
in Scotland and the end of right-to-buy.
“The fundamental point is that we should not be reading in the press
what is going to be said in the Chamber, we should read what has been
said. I object strongly to detailed pre-announcement of Ministerial
Statements which constitutes a discourtesy to this Parliament and, by
extension, the people of Scotland.
Fergusson added that: “Having made my position clear on such matters
previously, I was somewhat surprised and dismayed to hear the trailing
on radio this morning of announcements that are to be made this
afternoon. There can be no doubt that, by whatever means, information
has found its way in to the public domain before being presented to the
Parliament, and the Scottish Government has to take full responsibility
for that.
The Presiding Officer said that he had now had the opportunity to
consider an advance copy of the statement and that this confirmed his
view that information had been put in the public domain before being
announced in the Chamber.
“I do fully acknowledge that the Minister for Parliamentary Business
has gone to some lengths today to ameliorate the situation - it is with
some regret that I inform Parliament that I intend to take the
statement as read in its entirety and to move straight to questions to
the Cabinet Secretary. In fairness to the Cabinet Secretary, there are
matters in her statement that were not covered in the press and I will
allow some leeway in responses to questions to allow those to be
addressed,” he added.
One person has commented on this article. 1. Presiding Officer warns government on leaks to press
Norman, Unregistered The SNP Government are only doing what the previous labour administration did so I don't see how they can complain about it. Get over it labour - you are no longer in power.
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