THE BBC has written to all Scottish MPs and MSPs to defend Question Time, amid the ongoing row over its broadcast from Motherwell last week.

Below is a letter sent by Ian Small, BBC Scotland's head of public policy & corporate affairs, sent to Scottish politicians.

In the letter, Small addresses our exclusive report that the BBC cut down SNP minister Fiona Hyslop's answer to a Unionist rant from the audience to just seven seconds.

Following the text of the letter is The National's response to the claims made in it.

READ MORE: Revealed: Question Time secretly edited SNP answer to Unionist plant

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BBC LETTER:

This email is being sent to all Scottish MPs and MSPs

Dear all,

Following concerns expressed about the recent edition of BBC Question Time (7 February) and also the repeated appearance of an audience member, I thought you would be interested in some further information. The programme included a range of opinions and the discussions were, as always, lively and robust.

Audience selection

The audience in Motherwell was selected in line with our guidelines to reflect support for various political parties and viewpoints.

Our procedures for audience selection are thorough and we make every effort to prevent people from appearing more than once. We ask applicants if they have been on the programme before, but of course rely on people providing accurate information.

We are aware there have been questions surrounding one member of the audience in last week’s programme. When selecting audiences we take the information they provide in good faith, as you would expect. On previous occasions the individual concerned has not provided accurate information to the programme and that is the reason they were able to appear on the programme again. We will continue to keep our processes under review and make every effort to make sure we get the best possible audience for each programme. Our primary concern is to balance the audience.

The programme does not of course approach audience members and invite them to appear, as has also been alleged in some quarters, but will often contact audience members to provide further verification, again relying on the veracity of the information provided.

Accusations of ‘secret editing’

There was no ‘secret editing’ as has been claimed in some media outlets and on social media of what the Cabinet Secretary, Fiona Hyslop MSP said. Immediately following the Cabinet Secretary’s full response to a question from an audience member, the audience member interjected and made a comment that could not be broadcast for legal reasons. Ms Hyslop attempted to intervene on the comment being made, and the two or three words she uttered were made at the same time that Mr Mitchell was speaking. This resulted in both briefly speaking over each other, at which point the Chair stopped the interchange and moved to a new topic and another audience question. We believe this was the only responsible thing to do in the circumstances. In any case, Ms Hyslop’s response to the audience member on the issue of independence was broadcast in full.

Please let me assure you that Question Time takes very seriously the issue of balance on our panels and in the audience. We review and discuss the make-up of every panel and go to great lengths to reflect a broad spectrum of opinion in our audiences, and we will continue to do so.

If you have any questions I will, of course, be happy to answer them.

Ian

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The National's response to the BBC's letter

THIS letter seems to pose more questions than answers. It is clear that they are rattled by the continuing revelations we have made in this newspaper.

First, the BBC are claiming that Mitchell lied several times on his application form. He told the Times he was personally invited by a producer. The BBC told us earlier in the week that "a production research chat is not the same as an invitation". Hmmm.

Second, they are complaining about our report which said there was "secret editing" of Fiona Hyslop's response to him.

They are playing with words. The fact is that a section of the show in which Mitchell and Hyslop continued to interact was cut by Question Time producers and wasn’t broadcast.

Here’s what we know. Hyslop was responding to a rant of more than a minute by Mitchell. Seven seconds in, on the final version, the show cuts to another audience member, seemingly as she is in mid-sentence.

Ian Small says at this point Mitchell "interjected" (the BBC's word) with a comment which could not be broadcast. But the BBC claims Hyslop's response was "broadcast in full".

How do you interject if the response is finished?

Also: they have refused to answer the most important question.

Why on earth would you broadcast the full rant of an audience member who goes on to shout something which makes a panelist's attempt to respond unbroadcastable? Why would you then highlight that audience member's contribution on social media?

As far we're concerned, if he shouts something unfit for broadcast, he’s had his chance. Go to someone else in the audience.

But that, of course, would have meant cutting the anti-independence rant.

This also raises a wider point: can anyone just shout something illegal to stop a QT panellist getting a right of reply to their points?

That’s what the BBC appear to be implying.

We're afraid there are far more questions than answers here…