Complainants 'reluctant' to go to police over Alex Salmond allegations

The complainants at the heart of the Scottish Government’s botched handling of harassment complaints against the former first minister Alex Salmond were “reluctant” to go to the police, an inquiry has been told.

Convener of the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints Linda Fabiani.

Judith Mackinnon, who was the investigating officer in charge of establishing the facts of the complaints against Mr Salmond, said she was asked to “sound out” how the women felt about their complaints being passed to the police.

She said that once the "full picture” was known by the Scottish Government, it was at that stage the permanent secretary would “consider the appropriateness” of referring it to the police.

Asked by Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Conservative member of the committee, whether the complainants were “reluctant” in reporting the incidents to the police, Ms Mackinnon said: “I think you could say that.”

She added: “I don’t think that would have been their intention when they initially had come forward to do that.”

The committee, which is examining the handling of the complaints which led to the Scottish Government conceding a judicial review action at the cost of £500,000, also expressed its anger at “obstruction” by the Government.

Speaking at the start of the session, convener Linda Fabiani said 300 documents had been handed over by the Scottish Government at 4:45pm on Monday, leaving the committee with no time to process and have written evidence in front of them during their Tuesday session.

She said: "I speak for the committee when I say this is not a satisfactory way to proceed in effective scrutiny, but we will persevere in progressing the task the Parliament had tasked this committee to fulfil.”

Labour member of the committee, Jackie Baillie, said: "The letter from [Deputy First Minister] John Swinney asking us not to reference certain information is extremely difficult for the committee on the basis that we do not have the written evidence in front of us.

"We know though that information was returned to the Scottish Government some weeks ago, so it is beyond disappointing that it is only now being provided to the committee.

"Can I express my anger of the continuing obstruction of the committee’s work by the Scottish Government.

"It is clear to me that this is part of a wider pattern of behaviour and it disrespects both the committee and the Parliament.”

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