9. To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what systems are in place to ensure that changes to IT processes in the Parliament, that will impact on the daily working practices of MSPs and their staff, are consulted upon, tested, introduced, explained and evaluated. (S6O-03256)

When projects will change the way in which members and their staff work, officials will build in opportunities for consultation and feedback and will often roll out the change to a smaller pilot group in order to gather feedback, tweak implementation and prepare appropriate training and communications.

There are times when it is necessary to introduce certain changes at short notice—for example, to protect against emerging cybersecurity threats. The corporate body is keen to hear from members if and when they feel that we, collectively, can do better to keep them and their staff informed of any changes or developments.

My question is prompted by the introduction of system changes—for example, the recent quarantine system, which has added another layer of complexity; made it more difficult to find, and, in some cases, easier to lose track of, important communications from constituents; and added to the workload of MSP staff. Prior to that, there was the introduction of the new reimbursement system, which was, in its early stages, cumbersome and difficult to operate.

To what extent does the corporate body feel empowered to push back on the business information technology department in that regard? It might bring forward new whizz-bang systems to introduce, but the implications of those systems on workload—and whether they are, in fact, necessary at all—might not have been thought through and checked with MSPs and staff.

Mr McKee highlights an interesting issue, which might have come as a bit of a surprise to some in the chamber. In the main, the corporate body accesses software and cloud services, including the Microsoft 365 applications for our email system and other office functions, on a subscription basis. Microsoft makes modifications and updates, which are available immediately to users, to enhance functions or address cybervulnerabilities. Quarantine is one such update; it was introduced to protect users from potentially harmful emails, such as phishing or malware.

BIT recently introduced the new alerting system to let members know when email messages have been placed in quarantine; I think that that is the change to which Mr McKee referred. The notification system was introduced by BIT because it would otherwise not be automatically obvious to users that messages had been quarantined. That was in response to something that Microsoft had done behind the scenes.

With regard to the updating of the allowances system, members and staff were offered a range of training options during the roll-out of the system, with step-by-step instructions available on the intranet. The allowances office and other parts of the parliamentary estate continue to provide support and advice to members.

Of course, we always welcome feedback and challenge, and we push back when members or their staff think that something will not work. Those views will be taken into consideration.