NICOLA Sturgeon's top civil servant has revealed she has been shouted at by ministers.

However Leslie Evans, who was promoted to the Scottish Government’s permanent secretary in 2015, told MSPs it was “not a daily occurrence”.

She also told the Holyrood inquiry into the Alex Salmond affair that such behaviour had not crossed a line into bullying.

She said she did “not remember” Mr Salmond himself ever shouting at her, and did not name the ministers who did shout at her.

She also told MSPs she was aware of “rumours” about Mr Salmond and sexual misconduct, but refused to comment as they were only rumours.

The cross-party committee is looking at how the Government botched an in-house probe into sexual misconduct claims made against Mr Salmond in 2018. 

Mr Salmond had the exercise set aside in a judicial review at the Court of Session, forcing ministers to admit it had been unfair, unlawful and “tainted by apparent bias” because the lead investigating official had been in prior contact with his accusers.

The collapse of the Government’s case in January 2019 left taxpayers with a £500,000 legal bill for Mr Salmond’s costs, and the Holyrood inquiry is investigating what happened. 

Nicola Sturgeon told parliament at the time that the inquiry could have whatever material it wanted, but her Government has since withheld evidence and tried to block witnesses.

Last week, the inquiry heard Nicola Sturgeon’s government has failed to get a grip of bullying by ministers.

The trade union representing senior civil servants said staff were still subject to inappropriate behaviour three years after a new harassment policy was signed off by the First Minister.

Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union, said around 30 staff in at least five ministerial offices had flagged concerns over the past decade.

He said the numbers were “pretty dramatic” and “quite extraordinary” compared to other parts of the UK civil service, and suggested a deeper cultural problem in Scotland.

He stressed the concerns were not all historical, and that some were “extant”.