‘No bias’ in FM’s daily briefings

TV watchdog Ofcom has dismissed complaints that Nicola Sturgeon’s televised coronavirus briefings are biased in favour of the SNP.

The BBC has been criticised for broadcasting the daily updates with opposition politicians claiming the First Minister was using the platform for political purposes.

After receiving four complaints, the broadcasting regulator assessed 16 hours of the briefings which were broadcast between September and December last year.

They said they found no issues that warranted an official investigation under the Broadcasting Code.

The concerns were that the the broadcasts were not “duly impartial” because the First Minister and SNP ministers were being given a platform to promote their policies and the programmes had failed to sufficiently represent opposition parties.

In a ruling, Ofcom said: “We considered that the first segment of the First Minister’s update briefings primarily focused on factual and statistical information on public health, including information about the handling of the Coronavirus crisis in Scotland and the legal restrictions and measures that were being put in place to tackle it.

“We took into account all the programmes considered in this assessment were broadcast during a time when positive Coronavirus cases were on the rise.”

UNION leaders had warned there was a recruitment crisis in the social care sector long before the pandemic struck.

Staff regularly complained about long hours, poor pay, and dismal conditions.

Despite such challenging conditions, social care workers are among those most deserving of recognition for their work during the pandemic.

Those working in care homes were at serious risk of contracting covid in the early days of the public health emergency as PPE supplies were lacking and the sector struggled to respond.

Scottish Labour has called for social care staff to be given an immediate pay uplift worth £12 an hour – but it was last night rejected by the Finance Secretary as too costly.

There is much in the Scottish Government’s Budget that is worth praise.

But ministers should now find a way of ensuring social care workers receive a decent wage in recognition of their hard work.