NICOLA Sturgeon’s top official has agreed to say whether female civil servants were advised not to be alone with Alex Salmond when he was First Minister.
Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans has told the Holyrood harassment inquiry she was “very willing” to write to it on the subject.
Last week, Ms Evans refused to answer a question from Tory MSP Murdo Fraser on whether female civil servants were “advised not to be alone” with the former FM.
Shaking her head, Ms Evans replied: “I can’t comment on that.”
As the question was based on disputed evidence at Mr Salmond’s criminal trial, SNP convener Linda Fabiani then blocked the question as outside the inquiry’s remit.
That prompted a public spat with other MSPs arguing the question was legitimate, as the inquiry is looking at the “culture” within the Scottish Government.
Mr Salmond was acquitted of 13 counts of sexual assault in March, but evidence emerged of inappropriate and drunken behaviour with female staff.
Two days after the committee row, Mr Fraser asked Ms Sturgeon if she was aware of female civil servants being advised not to be alone with her predecessor.
She told the Scottish Parliament: “No, I was not aware of that.”
Ahead of the inquiry’s second evidence session tomorrow, Ms Evans has now changed her position.
In a letter to Ms Fabiani, she said: “I fully appreciate you will have had reasons, based on the Committee’s remit and the various legal restrictions in place, for disallowing that line of questioning.
"However, I would like to make clear that - contrary to some media reports - I am very willing to write to the Committee to address this issue.”
The inquiry is examining the Government’s botched in-house sexual misconduct probe into Mr Salmond in 2018, which was triggered by complaints from two female civil servants.
Mr Salmond had the exercise set aside in a judicial review, forcing ministers to admit it had been unfair, unlawful and “tainted by apparent bias”.
The collapse of the Government’s case in January 2019 left taxpayers with a £500,000 bill for Mr Salmond’s costs, and the Holyrood inquiry is investigating what happened.
The MSPs are also looking at whether Ms Sturgeon broke the Scottish ministerial code by staying in contact with Mr Salmond while her officials were investigating him.
Mr Fraser welcomed Ms Evans’s statement, but said she should oral evidence on the subject rather than just put it in writing.
He said: “Leslie Evans has certainly changed her tune since she refused to answer my question.
“But we don’t need Leslie Evans to merely write to the committee.
“Given her attempt to dodge the question at the first time of asking, it is only right she now appears before the inquiry again, as soon as possible, to face the scrutiny she avoided the first time.
“There can be no hiding behind a letter for Ms Evans on when she knew about claims that female civil servants were not allowed to be alone with Alex Salmond.”
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