Sturgeon fails to explicitly deny private email claims

Nicola Sturgeon has failed to explicitly deny using a “private or party” email account for Scottish Government business.

The first minister’s statement was in reply to a question from Tory MSP Donald Cameron during First Minister’s Questions.

A spokesman later said Ms Sturgeon does not use a personal account to “conduct substantive government business”.

Party email accounts are not usually covered by freedom of information legislation, meaning messages would not necessarily be available to members of the public.

The first minister said: “The government is completely subject to freedom of information legislation and we would be covered by any of that.

“Most of the way I, rightly or wrongly, conduct government business is on paper.

“I receive paper boxes not email boxes and I do handwritten notes. That’s the way I conduct business.”

The question came after concerns were raised over the lack of rules in place to limit the practice.

The Times reported the first minister did not send a single email to ministers using their government accounts in June and only sent two notes to special advisers – both of which came from a party email account.

A spokesman for the first minister said: “Ministers don’t conduct government business by private email accounts, they simply don’t.”

Mr Cameron said: “The first minister failed to answer a simple yesno question. It simply isn’t good enough.”