Alex Salmond may appear in December in front of the Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish government’s handling of harassment complaints against him.
The eagerly anticipated evidence of the former First Minister has been pencilled in for before Christmas.
Linda Fabiani, the chair of the cross-party committee set up to investigate how the Scottish Government dealt with the complaints, has written to Salmond asking that he submit written evidence as soon as possible.
She made a “firm request” that MSPs receive a written submission from the ex-SNP leader at the “earliest opportunity”.
In her letter, Fabiani wrote: "I repeat again, on behalf of the Committee the firm request to be provided with a written submission from you at your earliest opportunity, otherwise your perspective cannot be taken into account in questioning witnesses as the inquiry progresses.
"The inquiry must complete oral evidence taking in sufficient time to enable it to analyse all evidence, produce its findings in a published report and receive a response to tis [sic]recommendations from the Scottish Government."
She added: "To ensure this can happen before dissolution of Parliament at the end of March 2021, the Committee has provisionally scheduled oral evidence taking through the remainder of 2020 including taking evidence from you in December."
The committee is investigating the Scottish Government’s process for dealing with the allegations against Salmond.
The probe was ruled unlawful after Salmond pursued a judicial review.
Salmond was separately tried in a criminal court and cleared of all charges against him.
