5. To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many visitors to the Scottish Parliament have been asked by security and other SPCB staff to remove badges and other apparel since May 2021. (S6O-03259)

We do not hold data on the number of visitors whose items were retained; we hold data only on the items’ details.

Since the Parliament reopened to the public in March 2022, security staff have retained at the main public entrance 26 items that meet the criteria that apply in the member’s question, including five badges. The reasons for the retention of those items are not held.

From badges to suffrage colours, it seems that parliamentary staff are, with growing frequency, subjectively enforcing the visitor code of conduct. It has become the case that there is a rule for some but not for others. In the seat of Scottish democracy, policies of so-called inclusion are leading to exclusion of women, which is a worrying and dangerous precedent. That is unacceptable, and it must not continue.

Will the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body commit to reviewing not just the Scottish Parliament’s visitor behaviour policy, but all guidance and policies in relation to banners, flags and political slogans, in order to ensure that there is clarity, fairness and public participation?

The corporate body has commissioned a review of the protest policy, which will include looking at items and dress. I recognise the need for policy to be consistent and to provide clarity.

Corporate body staff must conduct themselves in an impartial manner. In an update to that policy, whereas until recently corporate body staff were allowed to wear personalised lanyards—that provision was introduced in 2017 as part of the diversity and inclusion strategy—a review of the code of conduct has just been completed, and the decision has been taken that all staff who are employed by the corporate body must wear the Parliament-issued purple lanyard. That decision will help to minimise the risk of perceived bias and will avoid any perception that wearing of such items might influence our decision making.