ALEX Salmond’s legal action against the Scottish Government over its handling of sexual misconduct allegations against him could be resolved today, it has emerged.
Amid signs of a government climbdown, the judicial review case is due at the Court of Session after both sides lodged a joint minute of agreement.
One source close to the case said they expected it to be “done and dusted” today, avoiding a courtroom clash between Mr Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon’s government that could have damaged the SNP.
A hearing is due to take place at Scotland's highest civil court as part of Alex Salmond's legal challenge against the Scottish Government.
After the former First Minister launched legal proceedings, the Government repeatedly said it would “vigorously defend” how it investigated the complaints against him.
However last night the Government conspicuously refused to use the same form of words. Instead, a spokesperson said the government would not comment on ongoing proceedings.
Mr Salmond, 64, was accused in January 2018 of sexual misconduct by two female civil servants relating to his time in office five years earlier.
He has always strongly denied the allegations and any criminality.
The misconduct claims were investigated by the Government for seven months under its top civil servant, the Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans.
Mr Salmond says the process was unfair as it did not let him present his side of the story.
When Ms Evans told him in August that she intended to make the fact of the investigation public, Mr Salmond tried to use the law to stop any details emerging.
However the information was reported by the Daily Record.
Mr Salmond resigned from the SNP after 45 years as a member, 20 as its leader, saying he wanted to clear his name and avoid a party split.
He raised £100,000 in donations to launch his judicial review within three days.
The court confirmed the two sides had lodged a joint minute - meaning they had reached a full or partial agreement on the case - and a motion is due to be heard by Lord Pentland.
The judge will decide how to proceed, with one option being to ask the government to re-run its investigation into Mr Salmond, avoiding any past mistakes.
Separately, Police Scotland continue to investigate the misconduct claims against Mr Salmond, with officers contacting a dozen government staff as part of “Operation Diem”.
The legal development comes a week before a full judicial review was due to begin at the Court of Session on January 15 and last four days.
Last month Mr Salmond won a partial victory against the government by forcing it to unlock emails and notes relating to the claims.
Lord Pentland ruled a batch of previously redacted notes and emails would be assessed by an external commissioner for relevance.
They included notes from a meeting between a government official and one of Mr Salmond’s accusers in November 2017, before any formal complaint was lodged.
During a procedural hearing in December, it emerged Scottish ministers had disclosed 300 documents.
One of Mr Salmond’s lawyers said they showed an official appointed to investigate the complaints had prior knowledge of them, in an apparent breach of HR procedure.
Mr Salmond’s spokesman declined to comment, but confirmed a hearing today.
The Scottish Government refused to comment on what it said was a “live case”, despite having commented on it numerous times in the past.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel