THE Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish Government’s botched sexual misconduct probe into Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon’s part in it will meet for the first time next week.
The committee’s first paperwork was published by the Scottish Parliament today.
However the specially established “Committee on the Scottish Government handling of harassment complaints” is expected to suspend itself almost immediately on Wednesday.
Its agenda says the six women and three men on the committee will be invited to halt its work to avoid cutting across separate criminal proceedings against Mr Salmond.
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The former First Minister appeared in court last month charged with two counts of attempted rape, nine of sexual assault, two of indecent assault and one of breach of the peace.
He strongly denies any criminality.
The committee’s work relates to the Scottish Government’s in-house investigation last year of two misconduct complaints against Mr Salmond.
The former SNP leader successfully challenged this process in court.
Ministers were forced to admit last month that the lead investigating official, who should have been new to the case, had several weeks of prior contact with the complainers.
This rendered the process unfair, unlawful and “tainted by apparent bias”, and left taxpayers with a £500,000 legal bill after Mr Salmond won a judicial review at the Court of Session.
The MSPs' committee will examine “actions of the First Minister, Scottish Government officials and special advisers” in relation to the misconduct probe.
They will also look at Ms Sturgeon’s secret meetings and calls with Mr Salmond during the government’s investigation, which her critics say were a breach of the ministerial code.
It emerged on Friday that the SNP government had refused to release the letter Ms Sturgeon sent to top official Leslie Evans about Mr Salmond last June.
The First Minister has already informed parliament that in the letter she told the Permament Secretary that Mr Salmond was the first person to inform her of the misconduct investigation, doing so at her home on April 2.
Refusing to release it under FoI, the government said: “In our assessment, release of this information could prejudice a case currently in court in Scotland.”
The committee paper on the timing of the Holyrood inquiry, says it was clear from the outset that it “should not impede, interfere with or replicate [the police] investigation, nor should it prejudice any subsequent legal proceedings.
READ MORE: Scottish Government to overhaul HR operation after Alex Salmond case
“Court proceedings against Mr Salmond are now active and, as such, and as confirmed by the Presiding Officer, the Parliament’s sub judice rule now applies.
“It is recommended that the Committee does not begin its inquiry (ie, seeking written evidence and holding oral evidence sessions) until these legal proceedings have concluded.”
It says the government’s own review of how the misconduct case collapsed and Ms Sturgeon’s referral to an ethics watchdog on the ministerial code were also on ice until “criminal proceedings are no longer active and the risk of prejudice has been removed".
It concluded: “The Committee is invited to agree that its inquiry will not begin until the active legal proceedings have concluded.
"The Committee is also invited to discuss the relationship between its own inquiry and the review of the Scottish Government’s handling of the complaint and the First Minister’s self-referral under the Ministerial Code and any impact on timing this may have on the Committee’s inquiry.”
Despite Labour objections about perceived bias, the SNP is due to take the convenorship of the committee, with deputy presiding officer and former minister Linda Fabiani in the chair.
The deputy convenorship will go to a Tory MSP, probably advocate Donald Cameron.
The SNP is in the minority on the committee, with four MSPs - all former ministers - while the Tories have two MSPs, and Labour, the Greens and LibDems have one MSP each.
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