THE Scottish Government has been urged to stop withholding documents about the unlawful investigation into claims of harassment by Alex Salmond.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney has refused to hand over documents about the government’s investigation into the allegations to Holyrood’s Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints.
Swinney has cited legal privilege for the failure to provide certain evidence, but committee convener Linda Fabiani has now written to him calling for the government to fulfil its “repeated commitments” to cooperate with the inquiry.
The letter notes previous examples where the Scottish Government has waived legal privilege and argues the investigation into how the government was defeated in court at the cost of more than £500,000 in legal fees awarded to Mr Salmond, were “exceptional circumstances”.
Fabiani wrote: “Central to the Committee’s remit is how the Scottish Government dealt with complaints against the former first minister and how it approached the judicial review of its handling of those complaints.
“The Committee fails to see how it can conduct effective scrutiny when the Scottish Government is withholding all communications about the judicial review proceedings.”
She added: “As you are aware the Committee will take evidence from the Permanent Secretary and the Lord Advocate next Tuesday, specifically in relation to the Government’s role in the judicial review.
“The Permanent Secretary has offered to provide a chronology of key points in the review.
“The Lord Advocate has also suggested he will give consideration to what additional information the government could share to inform the Committee’s scrutiny of the review.
“However, given the government’s repeated commitments to co-operating with the Committee, and to provide it with the information it requires, a decision to waive privilege in these circumstances would be a necessary step towards fulfilling these commitments.”
Swinney, in a letter to the committee dated August 31, said that an unnamed individual has objected to government documents being released.
Explaining that the government had notified people mentioned in documents that could have been submitted to the committee, Mr Swinney said: “A formal objection has been received by the Scottish Government on behalf of an individual in response to our notification.
“In considering the points made in that objection we are taking further legal advice about the options available to us in order to be able to submit to the Committee the range of documents which we would like to send.”
He added: “The process of resolving this position will have a bearing on when the Scottish Government will be able to submit this tranche of documents to the Committee, and I will update you as soon as I have further information.”
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Commenting on the situation, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and committee member Jackie Baillie said: “The secrecy must end.
“This Committee cannot be deprived of vital information that could hold the key to the debacle that we are investigating.
“The Scottish Government cannot hide behind smoke and mirrors. We need clarity and we need it now.”
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