THE convener of Holyrood's harassment committee has attacked "damaging" and "selective" leaks of her inquiry to the media - but did not say they were inaccurate.

In a statement released today Linda Fabiani, the SNP MSP, warned members of the inquiry that their code of conduct explicitly required report drafts to be kept confidential until publication.

A series of leaks have taken place over the last 24 hours which have dominated newspaper and TV headlines.

Last night Sky News reported that the inquiry had found that the First Minister had misled parliament.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon's office blasts new leak as 'baseless assertion and smear'

It reported that by five votes to four, MSPs said Nicola Sturgeon's evidence was "an inaccurate account of what happened and she has misled the committee on this matter".

A new leak today said the probe concluded that it is "hard to believe" she did not know of concerns about the former first minister's behaviour before November 2017, as she has claimed.

The First Minister, the Scottish Greens' leader Patrick Harvie have already hit out at the leaks. Today Fabiani added her name to those highlighting concerns.

The National:

"Over the past 24 hours, accounts of the conclusions of the draft report of the Scottish Parliament’s committee on the Scottish Government’s handling of harassment complaints have been leaked to the media. 

"I am dismayed by the damage this may do to the value of the committee’s work which I have long hoped would improve the treatment of the complainers of sexual harassment," she said.

"The selective leaking of particular Committee recommendations has shifted the focus away from these goals, and the recommendations which seek to achieve it, and onto party political terrain which will likely frustrate, not assist, the women at the heart of this." 

READ MORE: Patrick Harvie says Salmond inquiry 'destroyed credibility of report' with leak

She added: "The MSP’s Code of Conduct requires that all drafts of committee reports should be kept confidential unless the committee decides otherwise and it requires that Members must not provide the media with off the record briefings on the general contents or line of draft committee reports because such disclosures of this kind can also seriously undermine and devalue the work of committees.” 

The cross-party committee has been looking at how the Scottish Government mishandled its probe into sexual misconduct allegations levelled against Salmond in 2018. Its report is due to be published on Tuesday.

The former First Minister had the government's investigation set aside in a judicial review by showing it had been tainted by apparent bias, a flaw that left taxpayers with a £512,000 bill for his costs.

Further leaks regard evidence to the inquiry about conflicting accounts on whether the First Minister offered to intervene in the complaints process at a meeting with Salmond on April 2, 2018. He and his lawyer say she did; but the First Minister denies this.

Leaked reports today say the committee concluded Sturgeon's written evidence is  "an inaccurate account of what happened" and she has "misled the committee on this matter". 

It added: "This is a potential breach of the Ministerial Code under the terms of section 1.3c.”

The National:

The First Minister's spokesman said she told the truth to the committee and stands by every word of her evidence. 

Last night Sturgeon described as a "very partisan leak" and said one that was "not that surprising" its finding that she misled parliament.

She told Sky News: "I stand by all of the evidence I gave to the committee, all eight hours' worth of evidence.

"What's been clear is that opposition members of this committee made their minds up about me before I uttered a single word of evidence, their public comments have made that clear.

"So this leak from the committee - very partisan leak - tonight before they've finalised the report is not that surprising."

She added that she is awaiting the result of the James Hamilton QC investigation into whether she broke the ministerial code.