I took no action on Salmond concerns admits top official
‘General quiet mutterings’
A SENIOR Scottish Government official was aware of concerns about Alex Salmond’s behaviour before official complaints were made but took no action to investigate, it emerged yesterday.
James Hynd told MSPs ‘things were said’ about the former First Minister’s conduct but that no action was taken as it was mainly ‘scuttlebutt and rumours’.
Mr Hynd is head of the cabinet, parliament and governance division. He told the inquiry into the Scottish Government’s botched handling of harassment allegations against Mr Salmond that ‘things were said’ about the former First Minister’s behaviour, but did not say when he was aware of these concerns.
Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton pressed him about when he became aware of the ‘rumour mill, the general sort of quiet mutterings’.
Mr Cole-Hamilton asked: ‘Were you aware people in various arms of the civil service had concerns about the conduct of the First Minister?’
Mr Hynd replied: ‘Yes, things were said. Whether they were true or not, I have no idea.’
He said he did not raise this with either ministers or Scottish Government special advisers, saying: ‘Scuttlebutt and rumour are hardly things to start raising formally.’
He told the committee that he had drawn up the policy for complaints against former ministers, saying he had identified that there had been a ‘gap’ in procedures for dealing with such allegations.
He also insisted it was ‘entirely legitimate’ for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, to be involved when the policy was being drawn up. He said there had been ‘a couple of occasions when the chief of staff was copied into emails and commented on them’.
Human resources boss Nicola Richards was then asked about the development of the Government’s complaint procedure, which allowed investigations to be launched into ex-ministers.
She spoke about the cases of three women who raised concerns in 2017 – two of whom went on to lodge complaints about Mr Salmond.
She told the inquiry: ‘Should individuals have decided not to pursue a formal complaint I think organisationally we still would have had some very significant things to think through.
‘If somebody had said, “I don’t want to proceed with making a formal complaint” and yet we had a reasonably detailed set of allegations from somebody, then I think organisationally we would have had to find a way of establishing closure on that.’
Miss Richards admitted the new draft procedure was shared electronically with one woman who went on to lodge an official complaint, and another was shown a hard copy. The second did not make an official complaint.
The draft policy was not shared with any women’s or anti-bullying groups despite officials insisting they share such documents with people to get ‘lived experience’.
It was also revealed the two women were informed that civil servant Judith McKinnon would lead an investigation, even after they had been in contact with her.
Last night, Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: ‘That the draft policy was shared with two potential complainants and not shared with women’s rights groups or anti-bullying groups is very strange.
‘Indeed, the fact these women were notified of the name of the investigating officer before the policy had been approved and before complaints were made appears to be against standard procedure.’
She also raised concerns over a ‘lack of information’ from the Government and ‘admissions that not all emails’ have been shared with the committee – despite a detailed demand for documentation relating to the complaints.
The Holyrood inquiry was launched to investigate the Scottish Government’s bungled handling of complaints against the ex-SNP leader.
In 2018 Mr Salmond launched a judicial review into the probe, which ruled the investigation had been tainted with apparent bias.
He was later cleared of 13 sexual assault allegations, which he denied, after a criminal case in March.