An independent report has cleared First Minister Nicola Sturgeon over claims she misled the Scottish Parliament in relation to the Alex Salmond inquiry and breached the ministerial code of conduct. Ms Sturgeon says she feels positive of winning a vote of

Nicola Sturgeon did not breach the ministerial code of conduct in relation to the Alex Salmond inquiry, an independent report has concluded.

The finding is contained in the long-awaited report on the first minister’s conduct, written by Ireland’s former director of public prosecutions, James Hamilton.

Released yesterday afternoon, it concludes: “I am of the opinion that the first minister did not breach the provisions of the ministerial code in respect of any of these matters.”

The report looked at whether Ms Sturgeon knowingly breached the code of conduct that governs Scottish Government ministers.

Inquiries focused on accounts given by the first minister to MSPS who scrutinised the way the Scottish Government handled complaints about Alex Salmond dating back to his time in office.

Key issues include whether there was interference with the civil service and whether parliament was misled.

Mr Salmond took the government to a judicial review, which found the government process was unlawful and tainted by apparent bias.

A separate criminal trial ended with Mr Salmond cleared of charges.

Ms Sturgeon said: “Now that this investigation is complete and its conclusions public, I will continue to devote all of my time and energy to leading Scotland, to helping the country through the pandemic, and to ensuring that as we rebuild from the hardships of the last 12 months, we do everything we can to protect jobs, support our health service and rebuild our communities for the better.”

The Hamilton report was finally published in the last week of a highly charged end to the Scottish parliamentary session and one day before the publication of a Holyrood inquiry report on the government’s handling of the harassment complaints.

Hamilton’s 61-page report considered four key allegations.

First, Ms Sturgeon was said to have breached the code by not recording her meetings and telephone calls with Mr Salmond and others on March 29, April 2 and 23, June 7 and 14 and July 18.

It was also alleged Ms Sturgeon misled the Scottish Parliament relating to the meetings.

Hamilton probed allegations the first minister may have tried to influence the conduct of the investigation overseen by the top civil servant, Leslie Evans, into harassment allegations against Mr Salmond.

The final, key allegation was Ms Sturgeon breached her duty to comply with the law in respect of the Scottish Government’s response to the petition of Mr Salmond for judicial review.

On the March 29 meeting, Mr Hamilton considered Ms Sturgeon’s failure to refer to it in a statement at Holyrood.

She had met Mr Salmond’s aide, Geoff Aberdein, who asked to meet the former first minister.

In his report, Mr Hamilton said: “It is regrettable that the first minister’s statement on January 8 2019 did not include a reference to the meeting with Mr Aberdein on March 29.

“In my opinion, however, her explanation for why she did not recall this meeting when giving her account to parliament, while inevitably likely to be greeted with suspicion, even scepticism by some, is not impossible.

“What tilts the balance towards accepting the first minister’s account for me is that I find it difficult to think of any convincing reason why, if she had in fact recalled the meeting, she would have deliberately concealed it while disclosing all the conversations she had had with Mr Salmond.”

The report considers the meeting on April 2 2018 – where Mr Salmond met with Ms Sturgeon in her home – was not a “party” meeting related to the SNP.