ALEX Salmond's top official has defended the culture of the civil service under him as he told MSPs he was prepared to appear in person to give evidence at an inquiry.

Sir Peter Housden, who was Permanent Secretary from 2010 to 2015, has told the committee he is willing to attend a hearing after doubt had been raised about whether civil servants or former civil servants could give their own personal accounts of events.

His successor as Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans discussed concerns about "the organisational culture" of the civil service when she appeared before the inquiry earlier this month and pointed to improvements since she took over in 2015.

"Changing a culture does not take months, it takes years, and I am not complacent. We have a more inclusive culture than we had, we have greater capacity, and we have built staff confidence to come forward in the knowledge that action will be taken. As I said in my opening statement, although that is still work in progress, it is certainly something that I have made an important part of my leadership contribution as Permanent Secretary since 2015," she told MSPs at the time.

But in his submission Housden defended the civil service culture in Scotland when he was in charge, citing information from an annual “People Survey” which found that in 2010 87% of staff felt they were treated with respect in 2010, 3% above the UK Civil Service norm.

READ MORE: Alex Salmond probe begins with apology from Leslie Evans

He added: "This measure remained at 87% in 2014, 2% about the UK Civil Service. 42% of staff were confident that senior staff would take action on the results of the survey in 2010, 1% about the UK level. This rose to 50% in 2014, 3% above the UK norm. 7% of staff reported that they had been discriminated against in 2010 against 10% in the UK Civil Service as a whole. This measure remained at 7% in 2014 against a UK figure of 8%. 8% of Scottish Government staff had experienced bullying and harassment in 2010 against 10% in the UK as a whole. This measure remained at 8% in Scotland and 10% in the UK in 2014."

He went on to say that while it was clear more could be done to protect women and other employees and to ensure "egregious behaviour by people in powerful positions is strongly disincentivised", he defended the measures the civil service had in place at the time.

"Self-evidently there is much more to do across the board to protect women and others at risk, and to ensure that egregious behaviour by people in powerful positions is strongly disincentivised. I believe, however, that we took all reasonable steps in 2010 to 2015 to ensure that the culture and procedures within the civil service were appropriate to our task and meet our duty of care to staff," he wrote.

Housden then went to address the role ministers had on the working environment at the time, pointing out concerns had been raised and that these were dealt informally by him.

He added that he could not reveal the names of the individual ministers involved.

"Ministers have, of course, a significant influence on the culture. They engage with staff at a wide variety of levels and their behaviour is fundamental in setting the tone," he wrote.

"Ministers are of course individuals and within any administration there will be a variety of personalities involved and different ways of handing relations with staff."

He added: "Where there were individual ministers whose behaviour was a cause for concern, the expectation was that the Permanent Secretary would manage these situations without recourse to formal procedures. Confidentiality requirements preclude me from sharing the particulars my experience but I took actions on these lines in a number of settings."

READ MORE: Alex Salmond's lawyer referred by watchdog after discussing trial on train

The cross-party inquiry is looking at the Scottish Government’s in-house harassment probe into Salmond in 2018.

The former First Minister had the exercise set aside in a judicial review, proving it had been unfair, unlawful and “tainted by apparent bias”.

The collapse of the Scottish Government’s case in January 2019 left taxpayers with a £500,000 bill for his costs.

Salmond was cleared in March by a jury of sexually assaulting nine women while he was Scotland’s First Minister from 2007 to 2014. He had insisted he was innocent of all 13 charges against him throughout the trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Following his acquittal he made a statement outside the court saying there was “certain evidence” he would have liked to have presented but for “a variety of reasons” was unable to do so. He added it would see the light of day later.

It is understood this information will be contained in a written submission the former First Minister has submitted to the Holyrood committee.

The submission has not yet been published.