Ministers won’t divulge Salmond details
Government will not reveal if it has information of contact with Sturgeon
The Scottish Government is refusing to divulge whether it holds details of contact between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon over the sexual harassment claims which have rocked Scottish politics.
A series of Freedom of Information responses released by ministers warns that the fear of prejudicing the forthcoming court case means they cannot “confirm or deny” if any details exist of the talks.
Mr Salmond has already admitted that he had been in touch with Ms Sturgeon on three occasions about two complaints of sexual harassment made against him relating to his time as First Minister. He denies any allegations of harassment.
The current SNP leader insists she made it clear she could not get involved in the case, but no further information about the contacts have been made public.
The Scottish Government has now released more than 20 responses to FOI requests seeking details in relation to Salmond’s contact with Ms Sturgeon, as well as information connected to the case more broadly.
But the responses follow a similar pattern. “We cannot confirm or deny whether any information is held,” ministers state. Ministers say they are applying section 18(1) in conjunction with section 35(1)(c) of the Freedom of Information Act which means information is “exempt if disclosure would, or would be likely to prejudice substantially the administration of justice.”
It was confirmed this week that Mr Salmond’s judicial review of the procedures used by the Scottish Government to investigate claims against him will be heard in the Court of Session in the coming months, after ministers set out their intention to contest it.
Ministers also confirmed seven live cases of harassment and bullying are being dealt with inside it core department. There have been up to 41 such cases since 2013 in the government’s central directorates, which employ around 5,200 people. This includes up to four cases in both 2013 and 2014, nine cases in 2015, ten in 2016, and seven in both 2017 and 2018.
As of 2 July there were “seven live internal harassment and/ or bullying cases”, it said.
The information was released in response to a freedom of information request.
In response to a separate parliamentary question from Labour MSP Monica Lennon, the government said it knew of 11 formal complaints of sexual harassment by staff since 2007. It said it had no record of such complaints against ministers since 1999 and the end of 2017, and no record of any such complaints against their special advisers since 2007.
The 11 complaints against staff since 2007 covered the core government departments and a series of smaller civil servant operations which currently employ around 6850 staff. It said the cases “were dealt with in line with the relevant internal procedures”.