Angus Robertson denies misleading MSPs over Historic Environment Scotland row

Angus Robertson has claimed civil servants did not make him aware of an invitation to the board meeting of HES.

The beleaguered agency has been plagued by issues in recent months, including the resignation of its former chair Dr Hugh Hall and reports a senior executive was sanctioned for allegedly “twerking” in front of actor Martin Compston.

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Appearing before a Holyrood committee, Robertson said he had not attended a meeting of the board during his time as Culture Secretary and that he had not been invited.

But in response to an urgent question from Scottish Tory MSP Stephen Kerr, Robertson said he had been invited to attend a board meeting, but had not been told by officials due to an ongoing investigation into Hall’s leadership of the agency.

“I was not aware of any such invitation when I attended the committee last week,” he said.

“Senior officials have now confirmed they had not advised me of the request from the former chair as they were seeking to address a number of sensitive matters at HES prior to providing me with advice.

“Perhaps the most pressing sensitivity was that included in the ongoing investigations at HES was one into the conduct of the former chair Dr Hugh Hall.

“Subsequent to his request, Dr Hall then indicated his resignation to the Scottish Government some months prior to the end of his term.

“This brought the investigation into his conduct to an end and, as a result, his request to meet the board was superseded.”

At the meeting of the Culture Committee last week, Robertson said he had since met with the new chair Sir Mark Jones.

Kerr described the minister’s answer as “frankly nonsense”.

“The Cabinet Secretary was invited to meet with the board of HES, let’s stick with the facts, that’s what he was asked to do,” he said.

“The fact that he didn’t know that he’d been invited is a separate matter.”

Kerr quoted the ministerial code, which requires those in Government to give accurate answers to Holyrood and correct errors quickly, asking if Robertson will apologise for the error.

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The Culture Secretary did not apologise, but said three separate requests had come from Dr Hall for a meeting with him earlier this year.

While Kerr accused the minister of being “out of touch” and “throwing a senior civil servant under the bus”, fellow Tory MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston asked if he would refer himself to the First Minister’s independent advisers on the ministerial code for investigation.

Such probes, Robertson said, were “up to other people”, but he added that he had stressed to officials “I am to be informed of any such requests in a timely fashion”.