Johnstone: I have worked hard as Presiding Officer to help Holyrood ‘do its job’

Holyrood’s Presiding Officer said she has “worked hard to enable Parliament to do its job” by allowing more MSPs the chance to question the Scottish Government.

Alison Johnstone said work to improve scrutiny of ministers by backbenchers had “certainly” been the “focus” of her five years in the role.

While Scottish Conservatives have accused Ms Johnstone – who was a Scottish Green MSP before taking on the role of Presiding Officer – of being biased against their party, she rejects such claims, insisting she has been “scrupulously fair”.

She said she has sought to ensure every MSP has had the “optimal opportunity to represent their constituents in the chamber” and also to “maximise” the chances that MSPs have to put questions to the government.

Urgent questions have been used “markedly more than previously” in the past five years, with Ms Johnstone saying this approach was “all about giving members the opportunity to scrutinise government ministers”.

She added she had “pushed to the max” the number of MSPs who can raise issues with ministers in Holyrood’s weekly topical questions slot on Tuesdays, saying she has worked to fit in “as many supplementary questions as I possibly can”.

In her time in the role Ms Johnstone has also written to all MSPs, urging them to ensure their questions are always “as concise as possible” – saying this helps to allow others to also be able to quiz ministers in the chamber.

Speaking to the Press Association as she prepares to step down, Ms Johnstone said: “I am absolutely in no doubt at all Parliament is the place to hold the government to account.

“That’s a role for the whole Parliament and I have worked hard to enable Parliament to do its job.”

She was voted in as Presiding Officer in 2021, when Scotland was still under coronavirus restrictions – and recalled times when she chaired meetings of the Scottish Parliament online from her kitchen table.

Ms Johnstone said: “It was challenging coming in at the beginning of this session because I was chairing a remote Parliament.

“We had recalls over the Christmas period, the summer holiday, I was chairing Parliament from my kitchen table at home.

“Sometimes at the height of summer we were having to get together online because we were in that hugely challenging and very difficult period.

“I was elected in May 2021 as Presiding Officer but it wasn’t until April 2022 that we were in the chamber as a whole body.

“It was just lovely to welcome everybody back into the building, to get back to how we expect business to run.”

She became Presiding Officer 10 years after she first became an MSP, having been elected for the Greens in the Lothian region.

But prior to that she had worked as a staff member to Robin Harper – who became the UK’s first ever elected Green parliamentarian when he was voted into Holyrood in 1999.

Ms Johnstone, who remains as Presiding Officer until her successor is elected after May’s Scottish election, said she had been on an “incredible journey”.

She described her career as being a “huge privilege” which was “not one I would ever have expected”.

Ms Johnstone said: “I campaigned for a Parliament before I ever joined a political party and even when I joined Robin’s office I couldn’t have imagined I would put myself forward for elected office.

“It’s been very gradual – I got involved with neighbours in a campaign to try to protect some school playing fields, so I wasn’t involved in party politics until well into my 30s.

“I didn’t expect to find myself in politics in this way, but my experience shows there is a place for everyone in politics, and I want everyone to be comfortable getting involved in democracy.”

With changes due to come into place at Holyrood after May – including a bar on single-sex committees and the introduction of elected committee conveners – she said the Parliament “will continue to evolve”.

But Ms Johnstone said that Holyrood would continue to play “a central role at the heart of Scotland and democracy”, adding: “I want us to continue to focus on making sure we are as responsive as we can be to the issues of the day, and to give all members an opportunity to debate them.”