The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Additional documents ‘embarrassing’: Wolffe
The discovery of additional documents in the Alex S almond judicial review has been described as “embarrassing ” by the country’s top lawyer.
In an at times tetchy meeting, Lord Advocate John WolffeQ Ca nd permanent secretary Leslie Evans provided evidence for a second time to the committee on the Scottish Government’s handling of harassment complaints.
The pair, questioned separately, used legal privilege on several occasions, avoiding answering a number of MSPs’ direct questions.
The prospects of the Scottish Government successfully defending a legal case brought by Mr Salmond changed after documents were discovered in December 2018, the committee heard.
Mr Sa lmond was awarded more than £500,000 from the public purse when the Court of Session ruled the way the allegations against him were dealt with was “unlawful” and tinged with “apparent bias”.
The Scottish Government settled the case on January 82019, with Ms Evans saying the decision to concede, taken by her, came after documents were discovered the month before.
Ms Evans said the documents, which described contact between the investigating officer and two of the complainers, were identified on December 19 2018.
Complaints against Mr Salmond were passed on to police before the former first minister was cleared of all allegations following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
The lord advocate was first to give evidence to the committee yesterday, in a session that lasted just over two hours.
He was continually asked about the recent decision by the Scottish Parliament to demand the government publish the legal advice it was given.
The lord advocate said it was not a norma l occurrence to disclose legal advice given to governments by their lawyers, listing the three occasions it had been done before – the inquiries into infected blood, historical child abuse and the Edinburgh trams.
Depute convener Margaret Mitchell asked the lord advocate if he had been the person to tell First Minister Nicola Sturgeon complaints against Mr Salmond had been handed to the police.
He said: “It would not be appropriate for me, as a minister, to confirm my involvement or noninvolvement at any particular stage.”
Asked by Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton if anyone had offered to resign following the judicial review, the lord advocate would not say, but he did respond: “Against the background of a government determined to be, and was determined to be, transparent, to find itself the way it did in the course of the commission and subsequently, in terms of additional documents coming to light, was embarrassing.”
Perth-based Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser asked him if the government had followed the advice given to it by senior counsel ahead of the review?
The lord advocate answered: “Yo u ’ l l appreciate I won’t attribute any particular advice to any particular individual.”
Later, Labour MSP Jackie Baillie referred permanent secretary Leslie Evans, the government’s senior civil servant, to the disclosure of text messages at a previous meeting, which read “the battle may be lost but not the war”.
The text has been interpreted by Alex Salmond’s supporters as evidence of a conspiracy against the former first minister.
Asked by Ms Baillie what the “war” was, Ms Evans responded: “This is about a long- standing ensuring within the organisation I lead that we have a Scottish Government that is open, that is supportive, that allows people to bring their whole selves to work and they can do so without fear of bullying or harassment.”