NICOLA Sturgeon will be quizzed at the first virtual First Minister's Questions session this afternoon.
The leaders questions session will take place at 12.30pm - in response to the Covid-19 outbreak and social distancing measures.
The virtual session will be streamed live to the public.
Holyrood's Presiding Officer, Ken Macintosh, said: "I am now pleased to be able to confirm arrangements for the Scottish Parliament’s first Leaders’ Virtual Question Time, where party leaders will have the opportunity to question the First Minister on the Scottish Government’s ongoing response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
"I know that members share my view that it is more important than ever that our parliament continues to function during this public health crisis and that we create opportunities for it do so remotely, not least so that we do not put others at any undue risk.
"I want to thank party leaders, business managers and parliamentary officials for working with such speed and effectiveness to enable this important scrutiny session to take place."
He added: "The session, which I will chair, is due to start at 12.30pm with a short opening statement by the First Minister on the latest developments, before opening to questions from opposition party leaders: Jackson Carlaw, Richard Leonard, Patrick Harvie, and Willie Rennie. We expect the question period to last for up to 25 minutes, with an absolute cut off of 30 minutes, and we have put in place arrangements for other members, staff, and members of the public to be able to watch it live on Scottish Parliament TV.
"We also understand, the question session will be carried live by the BBC and potentially other broadcasters.
"The Parliamentary Bureau will continue to take stock of ongoing developments and, learning from and building on tomorrow’s experience, will consider whether to put in place further virtual scrutiny arrangements involving other members for next week. I am very conscious that many Members would welcome such an opportunity and I will of course keep you fully up to date on the Bureau’s decisions, next steps and future plans."
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