MSPs will no longer be allowed to work from home except in the ‘most serious circumstances’ in a dramatic crackdown at Holyrood.

Newly elected Presiding Officer Kenneth Gibson has introduced a raft of measures to ensure more politicians attend the chamber in person, insisting ‘scrutiny is much more effective if you are in the room’.

Hybrid working was introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic to ensure parliamentary business continued without putting politicians at risk of contracting the virus.

Supporters of the practice say the option to work from home allows for a better work-life balance.

But the updated Holyrood rules state that remote working should be avoided in ‘all but the most serious circumstances’.

Mr Gibson said: ‘Members can work remotely but it is discouraged. It is a parliament. It is for people to meet and deliberate and scrutiny is much more effective if you are in the room.

‘If there is a vote in the chamber and people are in the building they need to be in the chamber to vote.’

His Guidance on Conduct in the Chamber document was submitted to Holyrood’s standard’s committee this week.

Following the introduction of hybrid working in 2020, MSPs could work remotely indefinitely.

But in an interview with the Herald, Mr Gibson said: ‘One of the changes I have brought in is that if members are going to be absent for two weeks they will need to notify the Presiding Officer with a reason so people aren’t just working remotely week after week. 

'We have also brought in changes so that people have to ask the Presiding Officer if they want to vote from abroad, which wasn’t the situation in the last parliament. And then you can judge if they are on parliamentary business.’

He said if MSPs were on parliamentary business or if they had ‘a pressing family matter’ they would be allowed to vote.

But he added: ‘They can’t just be on holiday, which has on occasion been the case. We have tried to tighten things up a bit.’

The rules, which have to be approved by the parliamentary standards committee, will be in place until January.

Mr Gibson said the measures were being brought in to ‘see how they work’ and after the trial period ‘we will see where we are then’.

He added that the guidance still allows for personal circumstances to be taken into account and remote working for more than two weeks was possible in certain situations.

In response to the changes, Scottish Conservative chief whip Tim Eagle said: ‘We await clarification of what exactly the Presiding Officer is proposing.

‘While parliamentary debates work best when MSPs are in the chamber, it’s also important to have flexibility to accommodate those who can’t be there in person for legitimate reasons.’

During his interview Mr Gibson also dismissed claims that the introduction of media ‘pens’ for journalists after First Minister’s Question’s would restrict their access to politicians.

He insisted the move was an ‘appropriate’ response after members of the media were accused of ‘intimidating behaviour’, adding: ‘We didn’t suddenly decide to do it for the sake of doing it.’