Inquiry ‘shone spotlight on Holyrood’

MEMBERS of the Scottish Parliament charged with probing the botched handling of harassment complaints against Alex Salmond have been able to “shine a spotlight” on the inner workings of Nicola Sturgeon’s administration, Holyrood’s Presiding Officer has insisted.

While Ken Macintosh accepted that members of the specially established committee had been through a “very difficult process”, he rejected any suggestion that the fiasco had damaged the reputation of the Scottish Parliament.

Instead, Mr Macintosh insisted that the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints had gone about its work “assiduously”.

Referring to the marathon session earlier this month which committee members spent questioning Ms Sturgeon on her role, Mr Macintosh said: “No other leading politician around the world has ever done that, but our parliament did it.”

But it took the threat of a vote of no confidence in Deputy First Minister John Swinney for the Scottish Government to release legal papers concerning the courtroom challenge brought by Mr Salmond.

That eventually saw Mr Salmond awarded more than £500,000 after the Court of Session ruled the Scottish Government had acted unlawfully in how it dealt with the allegations.

The committee also took the unprecedented step of issuing orders under the 1998 Scotland Act – the law which established the Scottish Parliament – as part of its search for information.

Despite the committee having a tight remit, with court orders also in place to prevent the identification of certain individuals, Mr Macintosh insisted it had “absolutely risen to the occasion”.