Alex Salmond inquiry raises concern over Scottish Government disclosures

The Scottish Government's top official has been criticised by a committee of MPs investigating its botched probe into Alex Salmond over a failure to provide information.

Leslie Evans, the Permanent Secretary, has now been written to by the Nationalist MSP heading up the inquiry amid "general concerns" over the way key details have been disclosed.

It comes after it emerged last month that the Scottish Government had been forced to pay Mr Salmond £512,000 over the collapse of a Scottish Government internal probe into complaints made by two female civil servants about his conduct.Mr Salmond is separately facing a string of criminal charges, including sexual assault and attempted rape. He denies all the charges."I would like to raise a more general concern in relation to the provision of information for the Committee," Ms Fabiani states in today's letter."While it is helpful to receive the details of the settlement of expenses, the Committee is frustrated about finding out about this through the media."

MSPs have raised concerns with Leslie Evans

Ms Fabiani also hits out at more information provided through written Parliamentary responses at Holyrood than in responses to the committee."We accept that the media reports were not prompted by the actions of the Scottish Government," the letter adds."However, as a courtesy to the Committee it would have been helpful to have received the information set out in your response without the Committee having to actively seek it."I therefore seek your assurances that you will alert the Committee to any further matters related to the Committee’sinquiry before they appear in the public domain, no matter how they got there."It would also be helpful if the Committee could receive the same level of detail on matters within its remit as contained in any other information available in the public domain (for example, answers to Parliamentary questions)."