Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)

Meeting date: Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Official Report 976KB pdf

Point of Order

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. This afternoon, the First Minister accused a number of members of this Parliament of using data on test and protect in a misleading manner. She accused members of talking down the performance of test and protect and proceeded to share her wisdom with the chamber on the accuracy of provisional figures. The First Minister, using provisional figures, then appeared to suggest that performance was within the World Health Organization standards. It is a case of “Do as I say and not as I do”, and it gives a misleading impression of test and protect performance by the test that the First Minister set for others. The First Minister was given the opportunity to clarify her remarks by my colleague Paul O’Kane, but she did not take it. She encouraged members to look in detail at the figures, and I have done so. This afternoon, Public Health Scotland published data that makes it clear that only 60.5 per cent of contact tracing was completed within the target of 72 hours, which is well below the WHO standard; those are finalised figures.

The First Minister stressed the importance of accuracy. Presiding Officer, I know that you want colleagues to treat each other with respect, but that applies to the First Minister, too. Out of respect for colleagues, should the First Minister apologise to the chamber for suggesting that figures were used in a misleading way by members of this Parliament? Will the First Minister be asked to clarify the record at the earliest opportunity?

I thank Neil Bibby for advance notice of his point of order. The content of members’ contributions is not a matter for me, but the member’s point is now on the record. If any member realises that he or she has given incorrect information in a contribution in the chamber, there is a procedure for addressing that via the Official Report.