Complaints at heart of Salmond Inquiry 'yet to have outcome', claims Scottish Government

Harassment complaints against the former first minister Alex Salmond are considered open and without an official outcome, it has emerged.

Complaints against Alex Salmond still have no official outcome, the Scottish Government have said.

The Scottish Government made the admission in response to a Freedom of Information request from The Scotsman in which it stated it could not disclose the decision report following the initial investigation because it was “not held”.

Officials later said the outcomes of the complaints had “not yet been reached” by the Scottish Government.

This suggests they remain open and are subject to the same flawed complaints procedure that led to the successful Judicial Review action brought by Mr Salmond.

That case, which is at the heart of the parliamentary inquiry, cost the taxpayer more than £500,000 in legal costs after it was conceded by the Scottish Government.

Officials had initially refused to release the decision notice and any details about any possible meetings held between civil servants and Mr Salmond due to concerns around data protection and potential contempt of court.

However, an appeal of the decision led the Scottish Government to drop those concerns and claim it simply did not hold the information.

Officials said: “Accordingly, the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested … because an outcome has not as yet been reached in relation to either complaint.”

The parliamentary inquiry into the handling of harassment complaints by the Scottish Government has faced significant difficulty in gaining information from the Scottish Government around the judicial review, with members criticising a lack of transparency and openness.

On Wednesday, the Scottish Parliament voted for a second time for the Scottish Government to release legal advice to the committee, something it has so far refused to do pending an official process in line with the ministerial code.

Jackie Baillie, the Scottish Labour member of the committee, said the Scottish Government was using every opportunity to stop information being made public.

She said: “This is just another example of the secrecy and obstruction that the committee has faced.

"It strikes me that they are using every opportunity to close down on information getting out into the public domain even through Freedom of Information.

"It is time that the Scottish Government stop hiding behind Freedom of Information legislation or legal privilege and come clean with the committee because we need to know exactly what happened and when.”

The Scottish Liberal Democrat representative, Alex Cole-Hamilton, labelled the disclosure “astonishing” and questioned why the Scottish Government viewed the complaints as unfinished.

He said: "I find it astonishing that two years after the judicial review collapses, this is still unfinished business for the Scottish Government.

"I hope very much that the Scottish Government has been in close contact with the women that they so terribly failed as a result of this botched process and has acted on their wishes.

"If this is the first the complainers are learning that this is potentially still live, that is another failure to these individuals because what have the Scottish Government been doing?

"We know that the Scottish Government have done nothing to remedy the flawed procedure which led to the judicial review collapsing.

“Why on earth would complainers be content for their complaints to be still open and be open to being investigated by the same flawed procedure?”

The Scottish Government said the fact the complaints remain open is “nothing new” and, when asked whether complainants were aware their complaints were still open, said it did not comment on “individual staffing matters”.

A spokesman said the Government refused to disclose the original decision report because it had “no legal effect”.

However, the Scottish Government refused to be drawn on whether they would restart the investigation into the complaints or what process they would be subject to if they were looked at again.

It also refused to state any policy that would mean it could not reinvestigate the complaints against the former first minister once the parliamentary inquiry completes its work.

A spokesman said: “This is not new – the First Minister has previously made clear to Parliament that it would be open to the Scottish Government to reinvestigate the complaints once the ongoing police investigation had concluded.

“The Parliamentary Committee is about to commence the complaints handling phase of its inquiry and we don’t wish to pre-empt that. We have not had a request to re-investigate and any decision to do so would be informed by the wishes of the complainers.”

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