Holyrood seeks legal status change to make it easier to remove protesters

The move is not the decision of the SNP government but of the parliament’s corporate body.

The Home Office has been asked to designate the building and its grounds as a “protected site” in the interests of national security.

Legislation has been laid in Westminster under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which is due to come into force on October 1.

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Under the legislation, people on the parliamentary estate “without lawful authority” could be punished with a £5000 fine or a year in prison.

The current rules mean only protesters causing a disturbance, such as high levels of noise, can be removed by police.

The legislation will bring the Scottish Parliament in line with Westminster and the Welsh Senedd which already have these powers.

But it’s thought the Scottish Government will use these powers infrequently.

Holyrood is a popular place for protests with demonstrations against GRA reforms and vaccine passports popping up recently.

In a letter to MSPs, presiding officer Alison Johnstone said: “We recognise that such protests are an essential part of the expression of democracy in Scotland.

“At present, the police have limited ability to intervene if there is no substantive criminal offence taking place, and disruptive protests can become especially prolonged.

"Civil legal remedies can be lengthy, expensive and an additional burden on civil justice resources.

"The SPCB therefore recognised that we need a proportionate means of maintaining parliamentary business whilst protecting the rights and freedoms of people."

She added: “As we have seen many times recently, maintaining a functioning Parliament to deliver and oversee the response to the current pandemic has clearly been in the national interest.

“We are also operating in the context of an increasing level of disruptive activity, including protests on our roof requiring specialist policing and emergency services response, and unauthorised occupation of the Debating Chamber.

"Actions such as these have the potential to disrupt the Parliament’s ability to meet.”

She went on: “Both the UK Parliament and Welsh Senedd are already designated as protected sites. We were reassured to learn from their experience that having the designation as a protected site has not limited protest – far from – but has encouraged those engaging with the institutions to keep activities in line with their policies.

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“SOCPA was enacted specifically to provide a solution to these competing tensions, to the extent that the right to protest and right to assemble at protected sites have already been balanced in law against the public interest in such sites being able to function safely and securely.”

“The Act therefore provides an appropriate legal mechanism, providing the SPCB and Police Scotland with the required powers to effectively and safely manage access and security at the Parliament.

"Being a protected site maintains the right to protest in a manner which does not impede parliamentary operations whilst also giving police the power they need to support us.

“These powers must, of course, be exercised in a proportionate manner. The SPCB has asked officials to work up a protocol between us and Police Scotland which will set out how and when powers to arrest or remove persons from the site will be invoked and the essential role that the SPCB will play in such decisions.”