Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Official Report 630KB pdf

Point of Order

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I would be grateful if Kevin Stewart, the Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care, would apologise to Parliament and correct the Official Report following his inaccurate response to an urgent question that was asked last week. The minister, in responding to my supplementary question about whether patients had been risk assessed under health and safety legislation, stated that the unlawful transfer of patients from hospitals to care homes without the conducting of risk assessments had already been looked into by the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland as part of its report on authority to discharge.

I wrote to ask the Mental Welfare Commission whether that was the case, and here is an extract from its response:

“Our report does not focus on health and safety legislation or the risk assessments you refer to; this is not an area which has been investigated by the Mental Welfare Commission.”

Accuracy matters in Parliament. I am sure that the mistake was inadvertent so, on the basis that the Mental Welfare Commission did not consider the issue, will the minister apologise to Parliament for misleading it and correct the Official Report?

I thank the member for advance notice of her point of order but, as she will be aware, I am not responsible for the accuracy of members’ contributions in the chamber. However, the member will also be aware that a corrections mechanism is available to members, and the guidance on that mechanism sets out the steps that a member should take if they realise that they have provided incorrect information, as well as the steps to take if they consider that another member has provided incorrect information.