The Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish Government’s unlawful investigation of Alex Salmond has ordered the Crown Office to provide all correspondence involving senior government officials about the handling of complaints made about the former first minister.
But the parliamentary committee will not order the his lawyers hand over evidence provided for his criminal trial defence.
During his appearance before the parliamentary committee, Mr Salmond suggested that MSPs could ask his legal team to hand over documents they had received as part of the court case.
Convener of the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints, Linda Fabiani, has now written to his solicitors to suggest it would be unlawful to order them to release evidence.
Section 162 of the 2010 Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act prohibits the release of evidence provided to Mr Salmond for use in his criminal trial, which saw him cleared of 13 counts of sexual assault.
READ MORE: Alex Salmond — 'Scotland's leadership has failed'
The former SNP leader argued that the threat of prosecution by the Crown Office prevents him from sharing material directly with the committee that he claims proves there was a plot against him.
Mr Salmond therefore suggested the committee could still use powers under Section 23 of the Scotland Act to compel his lawyers to release that information, and they would be willing to comply.
Mr Salmond appears before the committee
However, in a letter to Levy and McRae solicitors, Ms Fabiani said it “would not be appropriate” to use those powers “in a way that the Parliament has agreed would be unlawful”.
She added that any further evidence they may have that was not disclosed for the purposes of preparing the defence for Mr Salmond’s criminal trial would be welcomed, with a deadline of Monday morning.
Rather than compelling Mr Salmond’s lawyers to provide the material, the parliament has issued a new Section 24 notice to the Crown Office, demanding it provides correspondence between the Scottish Government’s communications director, Barbara Allison, and Permanent Secretary, Leslie Evans, Director of People, Nicola Richards, or Judith Mackinnon – the investigating officer whose prior contact with complainers fundamentally jeopardised the lawfulness of the investigation into Mr Salmond.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon denies wanting to 'get' Alex Salmond
The committee has said it wants to see all communication relating to the development and implementation of the harassment complaints policy used to investigate Mr Salmond and the handling of the allegations under the procedure.
The order states that the committee is seeking to establish whether there is evidence to support the claim that the harassment complaints procedure was used to damage the reputation of Alex Salmond”.
Commenting on the decison to order the Crown Office to release documents, Scottish Conservative committee member Murdo Fraser said: “We are determined to use every means at our disposal to establish why Nicola Sturgeon’s government recklessly pursued an unlawful course of action in defiance of clear legal advice.
“She and the SNP have done everything possible to block transparency and prevent the public finding out why female complainers were so badly failed, costing taxpayers at least £600,000.”
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