ONE of Scotland's most senior civil servants has asked MSPs to put on the official record that he was unaware of any rumours of inappropriate sexual behaviour relating to "Alex Salmond or other Scottish Government ministers".

James Hynd told the committee in a letter which has just been published that he wished for his position to be clarified because he believed it had had been misinterpreted following his oral evidence to the committee last month.

The mandarin, who is deputy director of the Scottish Government's Cabinet Parliament and Governance Division, sent the letter to committee convener Linda Fabiani yesterday.

Fabiani drew attention to the letter this morning as MSPs continued the probe’s oral evidence sessions.

She said: "On record here I would like to state that Mr Hynd is concerned that some of the evidence he gave was later misrepresented and he has asked a particular point be put on record here which is that 'he is clear that he was not aware of any rumours about sexually inappropriate behaviour on the part of Mr Salmond or other ministers."

In his letter Hynd said he had been asked, when he attended the committee hearing last month, by the LibDem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton, whether he had heard any “scuttlebutt”, “rumour mill” or “mutterings” about the conduct of the former First Minister.

He added: "In responding to those and other questions I said that I had heard things about Mr Salmond’s behaviour but that I was in no position to say whether that hearsay and rumour was true or not.

"I also said that those unsubstantiated rumours did not relate to matters within the scope of the Harassment Procedure, which includes matters of sexual harassment.

"In other words, my intention was to make clear to the committee that I did not at any time hear rumours regarding allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct relating to Mr Salmond."

He continued: "In the committee session with the Permanent Secretary on September 8, Mr Cole-Hamilton inaccurately said in relation to my evidence of August 25 that: 'things were said to him as part of an informal hum of rumours about bullying and sexually inappropriate behaviour by Alex Salmond and other ministers'."

He stressed: "As I have noted above, I wish to be clear that I was not aware of any rumours about 'sexually inappropriate behaviour' on the part of Mr Salmond or other ministers.

"I should be grateful if this important point could be drawn the committee’s attention and placed on the record."

Fabiani drew attention to Hynd’s letter after former Permanent Secretary Sir Peter Housden gave evidence to the probe earlier this morning.