Flaws and failings.. as a Government & individuals
THE First Minister and Scotland’s top civil servant were singled out for criticism by an inquiry into the Government’s disastrous Alex Salmond probe.
The First Minister was accused of misleading Parliament over a meeting with Salmond, while Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans was blasted over her role in a botched legal defence.
The inquiry also branded the Government’s handling of key aspects of the case as “seriously flawed”.
Set up in 2019, the Holyrood Committee investigated the SNP Government’s mishandling of sexual misconduct complaints by two women against Salmond when he was first minister.
Salmond pursued a judicial review and it was agreed the Government probe acted unlawfully.
The fatal flaw was that the investigating officer in the Salmond investigation had prior contact with the women who complained.
The MSP-led committee examined how the policy behind the Salmond probe came into effect, the handling of the complaints, the judicial review, and whether Sturgeon breached the ministerial code.
The majority findings against Sturgeon – that she “misled” the inquiry over whether she offered to assist Salmond – were leaked last week and confirmed in the 190-page report published yesterday.
On the development of the Government’s new anti-harassment policy, made at the height of the MeToo scandal in 2017, the inquiry criticised the speed at which it was developed.
The inquiry also found it “astonishing” that the “perception of impartiality” around the investigating officer was not identified.
MSPs pointed the finger at Evans, who heads the civil service in
Scotland, by saying her office was tasked with coordinating the supply of information for the judicial review.
It said: “It must be questioned why the Permanent Secretary in her role and with her knowledge did not ensure that the relevant information was extracted and processed at a much earlier stage. This individual failing is as significant as the general corporate failing already described.”
The inquiry also concluded that the Government had “significantly impeded” and “hampered” its work over supplying information to them.
MSPs noted: “The committee’s scrutiny has been significantly impacted by the delays in the provision of information from the Scottish Government and by its constant refusal to release legal advice.”
The inquiry also criticised Salmond for missing deadlines over the submission of evidence.
It noted the former FM had supplied material to MSPs on the committee directly, rather than through its formal mechanism.
The inquiry concluded that the women who complained about Salmond were “badly” let down, adding: “Fundamental errors were made which called the procedure into question. These errors were compounded by the way in which the judicial review was dealt with by the Scottish Government.
“This resulted in over £500,000 of public money being spent on defending a judicial review that ultimately had to be conceded.”