‘Salmond’ inquiry? No, probe is about a lot more...
ON Tuesday, the rather opaquely named Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints will take its first live evidence in Holyrood.
To those of us who work in the parliament building, it is referred to simply as the ‘Alex Salmond Committee’.
The former First Minister has been in court twice in recent years regarding both allegations of sexual impropriety and the way those allegations were investigated by the Government.
The first case, at the Court of Session, was at the behest of Mr Salmond. He accused the government he used to lead of acting unfairly against him and the court ruled its inquiry was ‘tainted by apparent bias’.
The taxpayers footed a bill of around half a million pounds.
The second trial, at the High Court in Edinburgh in March, was a criminal one .
Mr Salmond was acquitted of 13 charges of sexual assault.
His own lawyer, Gordon Jackson, QC, conceded to the jury that his client ‘could have been a better man’ but successfully argued that his client had not committed an illegal act.
It has taken a lot of time – and no little controversy – to get to the point where this Holyrood committee can start interviewing witnesses.
The Scottish Government has been accused of secrecy by refusing to hand over a number of documents requested, or handing over papers with whole sections or pages blacked out.
Accusations of a ‘go-slow’ have festered as deadlines for submission have been missed and attempts to have civil servants appear in panels – or Nicola Sturgeon’s chief of staff not appear at all – have been overruled by the committee.
Documents made public have raised two significant issues.
One shows the First Minister had talks with a close adviser of Mr Salmond four days before she claimed she first learned about sexual harassment complaints.
AS Scotland slowly eases out of lockdown, it’s time for us to do our bit and enjoy the attractions on our own doorstep. Historic Environment Scotland is reopening ten sites over the next few weeks – including Tantallon Castle and Linlithgow Palace. That is after recent successful reopenings of Edinburgh and Stirling castles. It’s easy to forget how blessed we are with a rich cultural heritage, and to forget how fragile that heritage can be. These spectacular monuments to Scotland’s past deserve to be supported. Go on – take the kids.
The other, submitted by the union which represents senior civil servants, describes a ‘culture of fear’ and ‘bullying behaviour’ endured by those working in ministerial offices.
The committee will want to probe whether Ms Sturgeon misled parliament – inadvertently or otherwise – regarding the timeline of the complaints.
IT will also want to ascertain the nature of any such culture of ‘bullying’ or ‘fear’ – how it was expressed, how complaints were handled and whether that culture still exists. And this is the crux of the matter. Yes, Holyrood shorthand calls this the ‘Alex Salmond committee’, but the importance of its work is not in establishing what went right or wrong under a former First Minister years ago.
The real importance is about what can be done better now.
How do we ensure that the Scottish Government is functioning as a modern, transparent and effective government should?
How do we establish that civil servants are permitted to work in a politically neutral fashion, free from concerns of bullying and harassment from their political masters?
Should such concerns surface, how can we be confident they’ll be handled sensitively and fairly rather than by being dismissed or swept under the carpet?
And this should matter to all of us in Scotland, not just those who operate amid the glass and steel of the parliament building.
Because if we can’t get the working conditions and protections right when it comes to the government of the country, how can we have confidence in the rights and protections we offer to others, in factories and offices and shop floors across the land?
When the #MeToo movement swept the globe and women started speaking up about some of their experiences in the workplace, politicians everywhere praised their bravery and promised to stand with them.
They promised to prioritise respect, equity and fairness and impose it in their own jurisdictions. We need to also ensure this is enacted in these very same offices of state and corridors of power where we write the laws for everyone else.
So it’s not really the ‘Alex Salmond Committee’ taking evidence this week. It is really an inquiry into so much more.