Alex Salmond committee convener rejects complaints about halting questioning from MSPs

Three cross-party MSPs had complained to the chair of the parliamentary committee investigating the Scottish Government’s handling of historic sexual harassment claims.

The SNP MSP chairing the inquiry into the actions of the Scottish Government in connection with historic sexual harassment claims has rejected complaints from members of her committee after she stopped a line of questioning of permanent secretary Leslie Evans.

Linda Fabiani, the convener of the committee tasked with examining the issues around the handling of complaints against former First Minister Alex Salmond, shut down questioning around whether female staff were warned “not to be left alone” with Mr Salmond.

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Mr Fraser said it had been “stated publicly that female civil servants were advised not to be alone in the company of the former First Minister. Is that something that you were aware of?” to which Ms Evans replied: “I cannot comment on that."

Ms Fabiani then interjected to say the question was “not entirely appropriate in relation to what we are doing at this committee under its remit”

Three MSPs, Alex Cole-Hamilton, Murdo Fraser and Jackie Baillie, had complained to Ms Fabiani in a letter, asking her to allow them to “follow where the evidence takes us”.

In her response, Ms Fabiani rejected the criticism and said the committee’s remit covered the “collective culture and values” of the Scottish Government and not “individual cases or the behaviour of individuals”.

Her letter states: “It is of course not appropriate to discuss, publicly, what is said in a private session but I do not wish the impression to be given that this issue was not the subject of further discussion or that I am not aware of or engaging with the range of views around the committee table

"As part of its inquiry, the Committee has decided to look at the general culture of the Scottish Government on the basis that culture has the potential to feed into and provide context to the development of the policy.

"However, the remit underpins the legal basis for our inquiry, including the receipt of evidence and conduct of evidence session. This is an important, complex and sensitive inquiry and there are legal issues particular to it that we as a Committee must all take into account.

“The work on the culture and process leading up to the establishment of the new procedure should therefore be approached as information gathering for general context for the substance of the inquiry. In other words, we are looking at this in relation to how that culture played into the need for and development of the Harassment Policy.

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"This is about examining the collective culture and values of an organisation, namely the Scottish Government and not individual cases or the behaviour of individuals.”

The convener added that she had a “balance to strike” in described it as a “delicate but important” balance.

Ms Fabiani said: “I agree that we need to go where the evidence takes us but it is imperative that we do so in a way that does not pose unnecessary risks, and this is a delicate but important balance to strike.

"My role as convener is to ensure our proceedings are conducted in a way that allows effective scrutiny, while ensuring we adhere to our legal obligations and I intend to continue to do this.

“As I made clear in Committee my intended approach is to suspend proceedings where necessary to consider any complex legal issues further, with a view to questions being addressed following advice wherever possible.

"As I stated on Tuesday, there is also the option of written evidence or witnesses being invited back to give oral evidence on a future occasion, and this includes further evidence from the Permanent Secretary, within the parameters I have outlined.”

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