Government told to release notes about Sturgeon meetings with Alex Salmond
NICOLA Sturgeon’s government has been ordered to hand over notes about meetings with Alex Salmond concerning harassment complaints against him.
Scotland’s information tsar has ruled that the notes must be made public after the Scottish Government originally refused to release them.
The First Minister has repeatedly claimed that meetings with Mr Salmond were SNP party business – and therefore no government record was required to be kept.
However, Scottish Information Commissioner Daren Fitzhenry has ruled that content provided to him ‘suggested that some of the contact between the First Minister and Mr Salmond related to government rather than party business’.
Mr Fitzhenry concluded that the Scottish Government ‘withheld’ documents when responding to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request on the matter.
The decision has intensified claims that Miss Sturgeon misled parliament over her contact with Mr Salmond. It comes after she admitted meeting his former adviser Geoff Aberdein in March 2018, where it was suggested there ‘might’ be ‘allegations of a sexual nature’ facing the former First Minister – later cleared of 13 counts of sexual assault following a criminal trial
Miss Sturgeon previously told parliament she had first learned about the accusations from Mr Salmond in April 2018.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: ‘ This is i ndisputable evidence that Nicola Sturgeon has been misleading parliament.’
Mr Fitzhenry intervened after a member of the public approached him over the refusal to hand over documents as part of an FOI request. He found that ministers had ‘withheld’ documents and ‘failed to comply’ fully with FOI laws, and that two notes were withheld under a section of FOI legislation which exempts information from being revealed if it might ‘prejudice substantially the administration of justice’.
The notes were sent between Miss Sturgeon and the Permanent Secretary, Leslie Evans, on June 6 and 7, 2018. Mr Fitzhenry said they must be released.
Mr Fitzhenry also identified a third document, which was not shared ‘with any Scottish Government staff ’ and ‘is not held on any Scottish Government system’. He concluded that it is ‘held by ministers’.
Miss Sturgeon has admitted meeting Mr Salmond three times in 2018 and speaking to him on the phone twice about two complaints of harassment made to the Government.
A Holyrood committee is examining the Government’s botched handling of two complaints against Mr Salmond and the creation of a policy for dealing with such complaints. The Scottish Government said: ‘We have disclosed the information identified by the Commissioner, with the exception of one paragraph... We have appealed the Commissioner’s decision to the Court of Session in relation to that paragraph since it raises legal issues which require further consideration.’
After being contacted by the Mail yesterday, the Government published the documents at 8pm – a letter from Miss Sturgeon to Mrs Evans confirming she met Mr Salmond on April 2; one from Mrs Evans confirming receipt; and a heavily-redacted third.