RECORDS of meetings between Nicola Sturgeon, Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans and the Scottish Government's legal counsel about the investigation into Alex Salmond cannot be found, John Swinney has confirmed.
The Deputy First Minister told the Holyrood inquiry into the Government's unlawful investigation of Mr Salmond that he is unable to provide details that the committee had asked for.
Mr Swinney, who is facing a vote of no confidence after refusing parliament's demands to release legal advice for almost four months, had said the Government does not hold "formal minutes" of meetings with its external counsel about the former first minister's ultimately successful legal challenge.
READ MORE: Tom Gordon: The Salmond rollercoaster may be coming to a halt
The current First Minister and Ms Evans, Scotland's most senior civil servant, held meetings with external legal advisers about the judicial review on November 2 and 13, 2018, according to evidence provided to the committee.
MSPs asked the Government to release the official records of the meetings, but Mr Swinney said it has not "identified any record of minutes having been prepared or previously held".
In a letter to the committe, he said: "I asked officials to check what documents are available, prioritising the meetings on 2 and 13 November 2018, which the committee has highlighted.
"Officials have identified a small number of contemporaneous email exchanges referencing these meetings.
"This includes exchanges following the meeting on 2 November and emails ahead of the meeting on 13 November 2018, attended by the First Minister and Permanent Secretary.
"These exchanges make clear that the focus of the meetings was on discussing and agreeing with external counsel adjustments to the pleadings for the judicial review.
"I have asked officials to urgently make necessary checks for compliance with court orders and data notifications, and then to publish these email exchanges as soon as possible this week."
The committee is meeting today to discuss the legal advice, and whether it has sufficient information.
A motion of no confidence in Mr Swinney, lodged by the Conservatives, is expected to be debated in the Scottish Parliament this week.
READ MORE: Iain Macwhirter: Salmond blasted a blunderbuss, Sturgeon applied a subtle knife
A Holyrood inquiry is looking into how the Scottish Government botched its probe into sexual misconduct allegations made against Mr Salmond in 2018.
Mr Salmond had the exercise set aside in a judicial review after the Government conceded it was unlawful and “tainted by apparent bias”, an error that left taxpayers with a £512,000 bill for his legal costs.
He was later cleared of multiple charges of sexual assault at the High Court in Edinburgh.
MSPs on the Holyrood inquiry had also asked Mr Swinney about any external legal advice received after the Lord Advocate wrote on December 31, 2018, about conceding the case.
Mr Swinney said that although there had been "extensive engagement between counsel and Scottish Government lawyers" in early January 2019, there were no formal written notes.
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