Alba MSP Ash Regan faces two-day suspension after complaint

Alba MSP Ash Regan faces a two-day suspension from the Scottish Parliament after a standards committee found she breached the code of conduct.

A complaint was made about a post she made on X, formerly Twitter, in April 2025.

It followed comments made by Green MSP Maggie Chapman after the UK Supreme Court ruling in the case For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers in April.

On April 22, Regan posted a copy of a letter she wrote to the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, questioning whether Chapman’s comments were compatible with the code of conduct.

But the post saw Regan’s own conduct called into question, and the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments (SPPA) committee was asked to consider whether or not she had breached the Code.

On Thursday, the committee unanimously determined that Regan’s post breached paragraph 9.1 of the Code of Conduct and was “sufficiently serious” to merit the recommendation of a sanction.

Paragraph 9.1 seeks to prevent MSPs from disclosing any complaint or intention to make a complaint to members of the press or other media.

The recommended sanction will have to be voted on by all MSPs before being confirmed.

In her representations to the Commissioner, Regan asserted that not only had she not made a complaint, but also that she had no intention of making one.

The Committee was “not persuaded” by Regan’s argument.

“The Committee has concluded that the breach of the Code of Conduct in this instance was sufficiently serious to merit the recommendation of a sanction,” the statement from the committee convener said.

“I propose that the appropriate sanction in this case would be exclusion from meetings of the Parliament and its committees on two sitting days, with those days being a Wednesday and a Thursday.”