ALEX Salmond's lawyers cited a failure of Nicola Strugeon's Government to keep an investigation into his conduct confidential as one of the grounds behind his successful legal action against the administration.

The reason is among the grounds given in a document drawn up by his solicitors, the Glasgow law firm Levy & McRae and presented to the Court of Session, setting out why they believed a judicial review was needed into the inquiry.

It lists what they said were legal flaws in the process of investigating the former First Minister - and also highlighted concerns over maintaining confidentiality.

A series of productions sent by Levy & McRae included a copy of a screenshot taken of the Daily Record website on 24 August 2018 which broke the news about the former First Minister being under an investigation.

The paper gave details of the complaints the former First Minister faced and it also reported that the complaints had been passed to the police.

Presenting their arguments to the Court of the Session, Salmond lawyers pointed to the article to say the Scottish Government (the respondents) could not guarantee confidentiality of their investigation or its findings. 

"The respondents cannot guarantee the confidentiality of the decision or their record of it. That confidentiality was breached the day after the decision was taken – see productions 6/36, 6/38, 6/45 and 6/47." 

Salmond's evidence was released today by the Scottish Parliament probe set up to find out what went wrong into the Scottish Government's handling of the complaints made against the former First Minister.

In a letter sent to Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans in March 2018, Salmond's lawyer David McKie, of Levy & McRae, notes her assurance that the investigation would be confidential.

"We note your assurance of confidentiality," he wrote.

"We would, however, welcome your immediate confirmation that such confidentiality extends to the entirety of this process including, but not limited to, all correspondence, the conduct and content of the investigative process and any conclusions reached or recommendations made."

He added: "We would seek explicit confirmation that no aspect of the investigation, or even the fact of an investigation taking
place, will be released under the Freedom of Information regime." 

He continued: "We would ask for explicit confirmation that at no stage now, or in the future, will any aspect of this investigation be made public. We would further seek assurance that no public comment from any member of the Scottish Government, whether civil servant or ministerial, will be made now or in the future. on the existence of this investigation or any part of the
content, evidence, recommendations or conclusions arising.

"We would further ask that Mr Salmond's name be removed from all existing papers relating to this matter and anonymised. We would ask for your assurance that all future papers will be similarly anonymised."

In their document presented to the court, Salmond's legal team also argued that their client "would suffer great detriment if the petition is not allowed to proceed" and that "refusing permission for the application to proceed would not be in the interests of good administration".

They also told the court that repeated efforts were raised to resolve the complaints via mediation and arbitration but these were rejected by the Scottish Government.

"The petitioner made reasonable attempts to resolve the complaints against him by mediation and arbitration," they said.

The document was among almost 150 pages of legal papers and correspondence released this morning by the Holyrood committee investigating the saga.

The offers of arbitration were turned down by the Scottish Government which then lost the legal case – a decision which cost taxpayers more than £600,000.

Following the judicial review, on January 8 2019, Lord Pentland ruled in the Court of Session that the decisions and reports of the Permanent Secretary were “unlawful in respect that they were taken in circumstances which were procedurally unfair and in respect that they were tainted by apparent bias”.

The Government’s error was in appointing an investigating officer who had been in prior contact with his accusers.

Salmond's evidence was published today ahead of an oral evidence session by the Holyrood committee.

Parliament will tomorrow debate the call from the Committee for the Government to publish its own legal advice.

Scottish Government ministers and officials have refused to release some material on the ground of legal privilege.

The former First Minister stood trial at the High Court in Edinburgh accused of sexual offences in March this year and was cleared of all charges.