SPYING: HARVIE DEMANDS ANSWERS FROM UK MINISTERS
Scottish Greens are demanding answers from UK ministers following the discovery that security service guidelines have been changed to allow MSPs' communications to be spied on.
The UK’s electronic eavesdropping agency had constrained spies from tapping MSPs’ phones or hacking their emails but this rule was dropped in March.
Patrick Harvie MSP, Co-convener of the Scottish Greens, said:
“The revelation that the UK intelligence services have changed their guidelines to allow spying on MSPs' communications is deeply disturbing and we must have a statement from ministers explaining the change. The privacy of parliamentary communications is a vital tool to protect the public interest.
"My colleague John Finnie MSP intends to write to the convener of Holyrood's justice committee, suggesting that the Home Secretary is called to give evidence about the situation.
"It's also a concern that it took almost a year of digging by the Record to bring this information to light when there is a clear public interest. Our digital age is an exciting time but there is clearly a need for stronger limits on surveillance by the state."
Scandal of Brit spooks spying on MSPs as GCHQ rewrite rules to pry on Holyrood (Daily Record)