Nicola Sturgeon has been blasted over the delays in her Government handing over their legal advice to the Alex Salmond Inquiry.
Tory MSP Ruth Davidson and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar hit out after the Government belatedly gave up the material on the eve of the First Minister appearing in front of the Holyrood committee.
Davidson said: “I want everyone to understand how incompetent and secretive this Government is.”
A Holyrood committee is investigating her Government’s mis-handling of sexual misconduct complaints against Salmond when he was First Minister.
Salmond took the government to court and it was agreed the internal probe, which destroyed his friendship with Sturgeon, had been unlawful.
The flaw in the botched investigation, which cost the taxpayer over £600,000, was that the Government’s Investigating Officer had prior contact with the female complainers.
A key controversy is over the Government’s 2018 legal advice in relation to Salmond’s judicial review.
In recent months the Government has twice ignored votes of parliament to hand over the material.
It was only after a motion of no confidence was tabled in Sturgeon’s deputy John Swinney that the Government made it available to the Committee.
MSPs have long believed delays in conceding the judicial review by the Government increased the costs to the taxpayer.
The legal advice, published earlier this week, contained an “urgent” note in October 2018 - two months before the Government conceded - from QC Roddy Dunlop, who was the Government’s senior counsel.
He wrote of the prior involvement issue: “It would be wrong for me to suggest that this revelation is anything other than an extremely concerning one.”
On December 6th, 2018, counsel argued that the “least worst” option would be to concede, but days later an email was sent which stated that the Lord Advocate did not want to concede.
On December 19th, counsel expressed alarm at the full extent of the prior involvement: “With regret, our dismay at this case deepens yet further.”
The Government then conceded.
Sturgeon was quizzed about the legal advice row during her appearance in front of the Inquiry yesterday and it came up at First Minister’s Questions.
Davidson accused the Government of withholding documents from their own legal team in 2018 and of refusing to release the actual advice to the Committee.
Sturgeon hit back by claiming Davidson was playing “desperate political games”.
In his first outing at FMQs, Sarwar said that the mace in the Holyrood chamber is inscribed with the words “wisdom, compassion, justice and integrity”. He said these principles had been undermined over the failure to hand over the legal advice.
Asked by Sarwar whether she agreed that anyone found in breach of the ministerial code of conduct - a key allegation against her - should resign, she said:
“I will uphold my words in the foreword to the Ministerial Code. I will uphold the principles on that mace. I will also demand the right to due process.”
