Scotland gender row: Failure to release full Isla Bryson review report follows familiar transparency pattern

It is a familiar pattern with the Scottish Government, and one that surprised very few people interested in the outcome of the review into the handling of the Isla Bryson case.

First, there were calls for full transparency over a contentious issue made at First Minister’s Questions by opposition politicians. Obligingly, Nicola Sturgeon committed to full transparency, telling Douglas Ross that “I am therefore not sure how anybody can suggest that there will not be full transparency around the review”.

Then the fudge. The commitment made was in fact for the “findings of the report” to be published, not the full report undertaken by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS).

And then the confirmation when, at 4:30pm, effectively the last-gasp moment before the Scottish Parliament rose for its February recess, justice secretary Keith Brown wrote to the criminal justice committee outlining the findings.

The SPS, the letters said, did not believe it was appropriate to publish the full report due to data privacy concerns involving both Bryson and members of staff. What was published was then described as a “whitewash” by the Scottish Conservative community safety spokesperson Russell Findlay, which offered no clarity around the central issues.

In classic Scottish Government fashion, not only were the recommendations clouded in jargon, but the findings of the report offered little in the way of new information.

The logic behind withholding the report is also questionable. Personal information is protected by data protection legislation, but ultimately there are times when the legitimate interests of the public trump those of the individual.

It is hard to see how this is not one of those cases, though the SPS will likely disagree. In any case, the Government’s favourite game of heavily redacting the report could have been played, but the likelihood is that would have fuelled cover-up accusations.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during First Minster's Questions (FMQ's) in the main chamber of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.

The public are therefore left in a familiar, unsatisfactory position. Ministers know what happened, the prison service knows what happened, but MSPs and everyone else is left to fill in the blanks.

This is not full transparency with any reasonable definition of the word. Controlling the narrative continues to be the SNP’s favourite tactic.

On GFG Alliance, the Alex Salmond Inquiry, and the ferries fiasco, the Government has retained information and instead spun like their jobs depend on it, which, in the Bryson case, they probably do.

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