NICOLA Sturgeon has announced a series of changes to the way in which the Scottish Government will handle complaints made against serving or former ministers in the wake of the Alex Salmond saga.

The announcement forms a part of a single, formal response from Holyrood to reports from Laura Dunlop QC, James Hamilton, and the Scottish Parliament’s Committee on harassment complaints.

Dunlop’s review, published in March, called on the Scottish Government to have claims investigated by an independent body, not by civil servants.

This recommendation has been taken on board, with the Dunlop review cited as a key driver behind the changes. 

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The First Minister has said that an “external, independent procedure to oversee formal complaints about former and current ministers’ behaviour” will be one of the key changes.

This, it says, will help to address issues of "prior involvement" which led to the Government losing a judicial review and former First Minister Alex Salmond being handed more than half a million pounds of public money.

The use of external processes will also separate the permanent secretary from the range of roles they were required to fulfil under the previous system for the handling of complaints. 

Other plans include a propriety and ethics team to ensure the highest standards of integrity across the civil service in Scotland, and improvements to how data and records are used, stored, and retrieved following an internal review on information governance.

This internal review is one of two which the Government has “proactively” published alongside the announced changes. The other looked at “culture and behaviours in the context of harassment complaints”.

The Hamilton report, which found the First Minister had not breached the ministerial code in her dealing with the Salmond complaints, also recommended that "further consideration" be given to updating the code.

The Government's response acknowledges this and says it will "cooperate fully with independent advisers" to this end.

Sturgeon said: “At the heart of the three reports are the complaints from two women who spoke of unacceptable behaviour in the course of performing their duties as civil servants. These complaints could not be ignored.

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“Everyone should be able to expect a respectful and safe working environment. This is both a legal right and core to the values of the organisation.

“Our goal is to embed a culture where bullying and harassment is not tolerated and where there is trust in how matters will be handled if things go wrong. This work is informed by engagement with our recognised trade unions and by staff, including those with lived experiences of bullying and harassment.

“We are determined to learn from and apply the insights from these reports to build a culture in Government where concerns are addressed early, and where all those involved with a complaint have confidence and can engage constructively and fairly in the process.”

The cross-party harassment committee's report came after its investigations into the Scottish Government’s flawed probe into allegations of misconduct made against Salmond by two civil servants. 

The former First Minister had the exercise set aside in January 2019, with a judicial review declaring it “unlawful” and “tainted by bias”. 

At a later criminal case, Salmond was cleared on 13 counts of sexual assault.

The Government's full response to the three reports and two internal reviews can be found here.