HOLYROOD’S Finance Committee is “extremely disappointed” after the outgoing permanent secretary refused to appear before MSPs on Thursday morning.
Leslie Evans has served as Scotland’s most senior civil servant since 2015 and is set to leave the position at the end of the month. She is being replaced by John-Paul Marks.
The Finance and Public Administration Committee has been hoping to take evidence from the permanent secretary before the end of her time in the Scottish Government, after first approaching Evans about speaking to them back in October 2021.
READ MORE: Scottish Government's new permanent secretary to replace Leslie Evans from January
But, according to the committee, Evans has “failed to engage” with the MSPs and effectively refused to appear.
On March 7, the permanent secretary’s office told the committee that Evans has been on leave from December 31 until her official finishing date of March 31 – arguing she could no longer represent ministers. The team instead told the committee to speak to the new permanent secretary.
On Thursday Kenneth Gibson, the committee’s convener, wrote a letter in response expressing frustrations over Evans’s failure to show up.
He said it had been made clear to Evans that the committee members would not be revisiting events already considered by the Committee on the Scottish Government’s Handling of Harassment Complaints – but rather would focus on government functioning and work within the civil service.
“We are therefore extremely disappointed at the discourtesy shown to the Parliament by your failure to engage directly with the committee at any stage regarding our invitation, despite our best efforts,” he wrote.
“When we finally received a response, it was not from you, but from the Office of the Permanent Secretary, stating that, as you are now on a period of leave (dating from 31 December 2021 until you retire from the UK Civil Service on 31 March 2022), you are not able to speak on behalf, or represent the views, of Scottish ministers. At no point have we asked you to do so.”
He went on: “We are firmly of the view that it is in the public interest for the committee to hear from civil servants as part of our public administration remit.
“You remain in the employment of the Scottish Government and we do not accept that your period of leave exempts you from giving evidence to a parliamentary committee, in the way suggested in the response we received.”
SNP MSP Gibson added that it was “unfortunate” that Evans would not come and discuss her achievements and accomplishments from her time in the role, but stressed the committee would not want to waste “any more of our time pursuing this matter”.
The committee will now seek to have John-Paul Marks speak before the members.
Evans has been a controversial figure within the Scottish Government, after former First Minister Alex Salmond alleged misconduct by her in handling sexual misconduct accusations against him.
He called on Evans to quit her role after a judicial review found the Scottish Government’s process had been “unlawful” and “tainted by apparent bias”.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel