The text of the Presiding Officer’s letter is as follows:

"I refer to the "Point of Order" which you raised yesterday about my complaint to the Press Complaints Commission.

"In response to various comments made to me by Members about certain issues reported in the press I thought that it was worthwhile setting the record straight about a number of obvious inaccuracies which have appeared in recent weeks. In particular, the amount of salaries, the nature of allowances, the number of holidays taken by Members and the false picture of the commemorative medallion.

"As I was due to give a speech to the Church and Nation Committee of the Church of Scotland I took the opportunity to comment on the reporting of these matters and the context in which they were set. I gave a copy of my speech to you at the beginning of the week and I do not therefore propose to re-iterate my views.

"There is a line between severe but considered criticism and reporting which distorts the facts to the point of untruth. In particular, I believe that recent reports in the Daily Record about the Parliament have broken Article 1(1) of the Press Complaints Code which states that "newspapers and periodicals should take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted material including pictures".

"As you know, I am strongly opposed to any form of press regulation. I believe in the existing system of self-regulation which is why I have made a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission in my own name. As I said in my speech I was uncertain whether the PCC would entertain that. It was in that context only that the phrase "on behalf of" appeared.

"As we agreed I am making this letter available to all Members, and will obviously circulate in due course the findings of the PCC."