The programme contained two main interviews, with the Chief Executive of Scottish Care Donald Macaskill and the then leader of the Scottish Conservatives Jackson Carlaw, and both dealt with issues raised by recently-published guidelines on care homes and the next steps likely to be taken to ease lockdown restrictions in Scotland.

The ECU decided they did not amount to a “strong and damaging critique” sufficient to require the programme to offer a right of reply to the Scottish Government. With the exception of the claim that no new testers had been recruited, which was clearly sourced to a report in that morning’s newspapers, the programme dealt with familiar issues on which the Government had already stated its position.  Where there was no direct criticism of the Government, or where its position was readily apparent, the editorial guidelines would not oblige the programme to directly reflect its point of view.  Both guests, however, advocated comprehensive testing of all staff and residents in care homes currently free of Covid-19, in contrast to the then advice from the Scottish Government and Health Protection Scotland, which recommended only sample testing. In the ECU’s view the programme as broadcast did give viewers a sense of why some caution might be advised on this question.  But the official position was not set out in either interview in a way which might have offered a challenge to those being questioned. And whilst the overall benefits of comprehensive testing were not in dispute, the Health Secretary Jeane Freeman had laid out her Government’s ambition on this at some length on the programme the previous week when she spoke about the need to raise capacity. The ECU therefore agreed that an opportunity should have been found to reflect her position and to that extent upheld the complaint.

Partly upheld