Scottish Government accused of ‘rank hypocrisy’ after withholding evidence to Salmond probe – but not others
SNP ministers have been accused of “rank hypocrisy” after denying evidence to the Alex Salmond inquiry on legal grounds despite waiving legal privilege in three other inquiries.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney confirmed the Scottish Government had disclosed secret legal advice to inquiries on child abuse, infected blood and the Edinburgh trams project.
Despite the multiple precedents, Mr Swinney is currently refusing to disclose legal advice to the Holyrood inquiry into the Salmond affair by citing “legal privilege”.
The inquiry is looking at how the Government botched a probe into sexual misconduct claims made against Mr Salmond in 2018.
The former first minister overturned it in a judicial review by showing it had been “tainted by apparent bias”, leaving taxpayers with a £500,000 bill.
After the collapse of the Government’s case in January 2019, Ms Sturgeon told MSPS any future inquiry “will be able to request whatever material they want, and I undertake today that we will provide whatever material they request”.
But her Government has since refused to hand over swathes of evidence related to the judicial review by asserting legal privilege and tried to stop witnesses from testifying.
In a recent letter to the inquiry, Mr Swinney saying it was a long standing convention that Governments did not reveal their legal advice to ensure it was given in a “full and frank” way.
He said: “If the Scottish Government were to waive privilege it would.. impact negatively on when and how legal advice is provided.
“This would not be in the interests of good government and upholding the rule of law.
“It is for these reasons that it would be inappropriate to waive legal professional privilege in respect of communications about these judicial review proceedings and the handling of the complaints against the former First Minister.”
However Labour MSP Jackie Baillie, who sits on the inquiry, used a parliamentary question to ask the Government if it had waived legal privilege in the post to release legal advice regarding past court proceedings against them, policy, administrative matters or decision making.
Mr Swinney confirmed the Government had done so three times in the “very limited circumstances” of judicial – but not parliamentary – inquiries.
He said: “The Scottish Ministers have authorised disclosure of legal advice in the particular circumstances of a very limited number of cases which each involved a judicial inquiry: the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, the (UK) Infected Blood Inquiry and the Trams Inquiry.”
Ms Baillie said: “This is rank hypocrisy.
“They have disclosed legal advice before but it doesn’t suit them to let the inquiry understand the truth of what went on behind the scenes.
“They simply cannot claim to be transparent and want to cooperate with the Committee when they are refusing to publish relevant legal advice to ministers.
“The Committee must have full access to all relevant documents and the Government must stop hiding behind smoke and mirrors.”
The Government has said it will co-operate with the inquiry.