John Swinney responds directly to exam results 'cover-up' accusations over summer meetings with SQA

John Swinney has said that the Scottish government makes “judgements” on which meetings should and should not be minuted when they involve senior government ministers.

John Swinney said "judgements" are made about whether a meeting is minuted or not by civil servants.

The education secretary, who was accused of a “cover-up” by Scottish Labour last week as part of his involvement with the exam results fiasco, was responding to questions from journalists at the Scottish government’s daily coronavirus briefing.

Mr Swinney was challenged on the reasons why eight meetings he held with the SQA chief executive over the summer would not be minuted after this newspaper revealed out of eight meetings between the two, only one had an agenda and none had any minutes.

Asked why no minutes were taken, the deputy first minister said the Scottish government has published a “vast amount of information” on his conversations with the SQA.

Mr Swinney said: “Those discussions set out very clearly the parameters of the dialogue that existed around about the alternative certification methodology and model, the details of which were shared with me the Thursday before the exam results were announced in early August and all that information has been set out in the public domain.

"When it comes to the taking of minutes in various meetings, there are some situations where there are presentations of information set out for which there is no real value in setting out a minute and the government makes judgements about which are the appropriate settings for those discussions to take place.”

However, of the eight meetings or phone calls held with Fiona Robertson, only two had presentations connected, with none having a recorded minute.

Education spokesperson for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Beatrice Wishart, labelled Mr Swinney’s comments astonishing.

She said: “I'm astonished that at such a crucial juncture for Scottish education there were no notes taken and no records kept.

"Parents and students are prevented for knowing what was discussed at these meetings. Opposition parties and campaigners were warning for months that extreme exam moderation could wreck the life chances of a generation of kids. Did the Education Secretary ever question what his officials presented him with?

"This SNP government needs to end its addiction to operating in the shadows. Pupils deserve better."

The education secretary was also asked for an update on the contingency plans around exams set to take place in 2021.

He said: "I took a decision...which was to ensure that there was clarity about the approach to the exams system to make sure the exam diet next year could be as sustainable as possible.

"The SQA is setting out the materials that it would recommend that schools should work with pupils to fulfil to assist in supporting the judgements that are made about the educational judgements of young people.

"Those involve setting of particular course assignments and making material available subject by subject and that will all be available to schools in due course and some of that will be available very shortly to enable schools to get on with some of the starting of that assessment work.

"We obviously are looking at the contingency plans which have a similar character to the higher and advanced examinations that we intend to sustain in 2021 and there will be further details set out to schools on that basis.”

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