So who WERE the top SNP ministers who ‘misbehaved’?
Mandarin tells probe he was forced to take action
A FORMER top civil servant has told the Alex Salmond inquiry he had been forced to take action against SNP ministers whose behaviour was ‘cause for concern’.
Sir Peter Housden revealed that, during his time in government, there was an ‘expectation’ that issues involving senior politicians would be dealt with ‘informally’.
Sir Peter – who served as Permanent Secretary of the Scottish Government from 2010 to 2015, during Mr Salmond’s second term as First Minister – has been called to give evidence to Holyrood’s committee on the Scottish Government’s handling of harassment complaints.
In written evidence submitted ahead of his appearance, he admitted he had hanas dled informal concerns raised against SNP ministers ‘without recourse to formal procedures’.
He said he could not give details due to confidentiality issues.
Sir Peter said: ‘Where there were individual ministers whose behaviour was a cause for concern, the expectation was that the Permanent Secretary would manage these situations without recourse to formal procedures.
‘Confidentiality requirements preclude me from sharing the particulars of my experience but I took actions on these lines in a number of settings.’
He said that in cases where a formal complaint was brought against a minister or there was ‘presenting evidence that an egregious act had been committed, formal procedures would be followed’.
It was previously revealed that officials had raised concerns over bullying by Alex Salmond’s office while he was First Minister.
In evidence submitted to the committee by the FDA union, bosses stated that civil servants had been operating under a ‘culture of fear’ amid concerns about the behaviour of ministerial offices.
Sir Peter’s evidence to the committee was published after his successor, Leslie Evans, appeared the first witness. MSPs are investigating the Scottish Government’s botched probe into harassment complaints against Mr Salmond.
He successfully sued the Government over the inquiry, which was found to be ‘tainted with apparent bias’, and he was awarded more than £500,000 in legal costs.
Mr Salmond was acquitted of 13 criminal charges, including attempted rape, at a trial in March.
MSPs had asked Sir Peter to describe the procedures in place for officials to raise concerns about the behaviour of ministers during his time in government.
He mentioned both the civil service and ministerial codes, as well as the Fairness at Work policy.
He said ‘reasonable steps’ had been taken to ensure the culture and procedures within the civil service were appropriate. However, he suggested the creation of an independent parliamentary standards commission should be explored as a way to strengthen ‘external accountability for ministers’.
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said: ‘It is an extraordinary admission that problematic behaviour from ministers would be dealt with informally.
‘We have no idea how many times informal discussions took place, who with or, most importantly, how serious complaints were.
‘The First Minister cannot claim to have been in the dark.’
Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie said: ‘This evidence appears to confirm what has long been suspected – the workplace culture in the Scottish Government was not conducive to the wellbeing of staff.’
The committee heard from Mrs Evans that she had told Miss Sturgeon of concerns over Mr Salmond’s behaviour in 2017. This related to allegations about an ‘incident’ at Edinburgh Airport.