New concerns over Salmond investigation
MSPS investigating the Scottish Government’s handling of c omplaints ab out Alex Salmond have raised concerns that information about the “financial impact” of the botched legal case is being withheld.
The use of legal privilege to withhold some documents has been called into question by the head of the committee on the Scottish Government handling of harassment complaints.
It was set up after ministers lost a judicial review brought by t he f ormer f i rst minister over its handling of complaints by two civil servants - at a cost of £ 630,000 to taxpayers in legal fees.
The committee has already halted its proceedings amid f r ust r at i on over a l ack of information being provided. The latest concerns centre on evidence provided this week by senior civil servant Sarah Davidson, who revealed that a report being withheld on the basis of legal privilege contained information other than just legal advice – it also covered the "financial impact" of the review.
Committee chair Linda Fabiani said in a letter to Deputy First Minister John Swinney this was significant given the need for ministers to demonstrate "value for money”.
Ms Fabiani said: "The committee f i nds i t di f f i cult t o understand why l egal professional privilege is being applied t o an entire document in this way and it raises serious questions for the committee about the criteria being applied by the Scottish Government when deciding to assert legal professional privilege, including litigation privilege over entire documents or parts of documents.
"The committee therefore seeks an explanation of the criteria that is being applied."
The Scottish Government this week lost a vote in Parliament calling on ministers to release the full legal advice it received ahead of the judicial review.
Ms Fabiani also raises con
cerns that MSPS on the committee are discovering information in their evidence sessions about the handling of the judicial review by ministers which was not provided up front, including the prac
tice of “daily meetings” which emerged last week.
She said this was informat i on t he committee would have expected to receive.