PRESIDING Officer Alison Johnstone cancelled a statement on independence from the Constitution Secretary as she criticised the Government for speaking to the media about a new paper on the issue before Parliament.
It was widely reported on Monday that the Scottish Government would publish the first in a series of papers making the case for an independent Scotland on Tuesday.
As expected, Nicola Sturgeon held a press conference with Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie to answer questions on Tuesday morning at the paper's launch.
But Johnstone made her feelings well-known in Holyrood on Tuesday afternoon, saying it was "unacceptable" MSPs had not heard about the planned release of the document first.
Instead of allowing Angus Robertson to make a statement on the "scene-setter" for independence, she simply skipped straight to questions, meaning Tory leader Douglas Ross had the first say in the chamber.
Johnstone said: "Yesterday, significant news that should’ve been announced in this chamber as a matter of courtesy and respect to the Parliament was reported by national media.
"Long-established good practice guidance on announcements by the Scottish Government states that announcements by Government on matters of importance should not enter the public domain before or without being communicated to the Parliament where the subject matter relates to matters on which members of the public would have a clear interest.
"It is my role to represent this Parliament’s interests and in doing so I take account of all members' interests equally.
"The Government is in no doubt that I do not regard this as acceptable and in these circumstances the Parliament’s time is used best by moving straight to questions and I call Douglas Ross."
SNP MSP George Adam told the i newspaper that the document had not been announced in the Scottish Parliament as it contained "no significant policy commitments".
Johnstone – who was elected as a Green MSP – said there was a “strong expectation” that announcements of “public interest” are made to parliament first.
Meanwhile, Scottish Tory leader Ross said the push for another vote was the “wrong priority at the worst possible time”.
“The people of Scotland want the focus to be on the huge challenges facing us,” he said.
“We want the focus of the Scottish Government to be on creating better jobs and opportunities, we want the focus to be on improving public services.
“Instead, this SNP government just offers more distraction, more disruption and division.”
Responding to Ross, as well as to Labour and the LibDems, Robertson said: “Now we have all of the opposition parties lining up in their agreement of democracy denial.
“We will be on different sides of the argument about Scotland’s future, but please don’t come here to the chamber and say the people of Scotland can’t have their say when they voted in an election that they should be allowed to do just that.”
