The convener of the Alex Salmond Inquiry has hit out at the “selective leaking” of findings critical of Nicola Sturgeon.
Linda Fabiani said she was “dismayed” at the damage done to the Committee’s work.
A Holyrood Committee, made up of MSPs, has been investigating the SNP Government’s mis-handling of sexual misconduct complaints against Salmond when he was First Minister.
Salmond pursued a judicial review and it was agreed the Government probe, which destroyed his friendship with Sturgeon, had been unlawful.
The Inquiry is set to publish its findings within days, but some of the conclusions have been leaked.
A majority of MSPs concluded that the First Minister “misled” the Committee on claims she did not offer to assist Salmond.
She has also been criticised for repeatedly meeting her predecessor during the live probe in 2018.
Sturgeon, who faces a motion of no confidence next week, has blasted the leaks.
Fabiani has now waded in: “Over the past 24 hours, accounts of the conclusions of the draft report of the Scottish Parliament’s Committee on the Scottish Government’s Handling of Harassment Complaints have been leaked to the media.
“I am dismayed by the damage this may do to the value of the Committee’s work which I have long hoped would improve the treatment of the complainers of sexual harassment.
“The selective leaking of particular Committee recommendations has shifted the focus away from these goals, and the recommendations which seek to achieve it, and onto party political terrain which will likely frustrate, not assist, the women at the heart of this.
“The MSP’s Code of Conduct requires that all drafts of committee reports should be kept confidential unless the committee decides otherwise and it requires that Members must not provide the media with off the record briefings on the general contents or line of draft committee reports because such disclosures of this kind can also seriously undermine and devalue the work of committees.”
