Sturgeon considers ruling on Indyref2

NICOLA Sturgeon has said her government is carefully considering how to respond to a ruling from the Information Commissioner demanding she publishes legal advice on a second independence referendum.

Last week, Daren Fitzhenry said ministers were wrong to have rejected a Freedom of Information request asking for the release of the lawyer’s direction. They have until June 10 to appeal his decision.

The First Minister told BBC Radio Scotland that the ministerial code contains provisions to prevent “ministers like me discussing the content of legal advice”.

She explained that was because of the “longstanding convention, not just in Scotland, but across the UK and probably most other countries in the world, that routinely governments don’t publish legal advice, because we put a lot of value on the ability to get free and frank legal advice”.

The First Minister added: “So if we are to depart from that convention – it’s quite a significant thing, it goes against precedent and we want to consider that carefully.”

The Scottish Tories accused the First Minister of trying to “prevent this coming out to avoid scrutiny.”