Complainants ‘at heart of new procedure’
Nicola Sturgeon has claimed the Scottish Government has produced a “comprehensive plan” to tackle the errors made in how it handled harassment allegations against former first minister Alex Salmond, but questions have been raised about the head of the civil service’s involvement in the new procedure.
In a formal response to three inquiriesintothegovernment’s botched handling of the allegations,thefirstministerpledged to “learn from mistakes” and “put the interests of those making complaints at the heart” of a new plan to improve the handling of bullying and harassment complaints in the Scottish Government.
Shesaidshewantedto“embed a culture where bullying and harassment is not tolerated” and “where there is trust in how matters will be handled if things go wrong”, with future complaints against ministers due to be handled externally rather than by the Scottish Government’s human resources department.
However, questions were immediately raised by Scottish Labour about the involvement ofheadofthecivilservice,leslie Evans, in drawing up any new procedure.msevanswasheavily criticised by the Holyrood committee that investigated her handling of the complaints against Mr Salmond.
The party's deputy leader Jackie Baillie, who sat on the investigating parliamentary committee, said while a new procedure was welcome, Ms Evans should not be involved.
“Given the several failings on the part of the Permanent Secretary, as revealed by the committee's work, it is simply wrong for her to have a leading role in the creation of the new process,” she said. “Indeed, the committee concluded that the Permanent Secretary should consider her position."
The plan, published yesterday, is the government’s formal response to a trio of inquiries into its botched handling of complaints of sexual harassment by two civil servants against Mr Salmond.
Ms Sturgeon said the new measures include an external, independent procedure to oversee formal complaints about former and current ministers’ behaviour and a “propriety and ethics team” to ensure high standards across the Scottish civil service.
There would also be action to improve how the government uses, stores and retrieves information and records, she said, after the government had been criticised for failing to produce information to the Holyrood committee
investigating its actions.
In the summary to the report, Ms Sturgeon said: “At the heart of the three reports are the complaints from two women who spoke of unacceptable behaviour in the course of performing their duties as civil servants.
"These complaints could not beignored.everyoneshouldbe able to expect a respectful and safe working environment. This is both a legal right and core to the values of the organisation.”
She added: “Our goal is to embed a culture where bullying and harassment is not tolerated and where there is trust in how matters will be handled if things go wrong.”