The widespread use of email “corrupted” communications between civil servants and lowered the quality of material given to ministers, Alex Salmond’s top official concluded.

Permanent Secretary Sir John Elvidge also blamed email for “poorly written” briefings and “ambiguous advice” that was open to misinterpretation.

He told the Scottish Cabinet in 2008 that to fix the problem, both the Scottish and UK governments planned to introduce mandatory templates for official business. 

He also said the Scottish government had a chance to act quickly, ahead of London.

The problem is revealed in papers released by the National Records of Scotland which show Mr Salmond was also concerned about a lack of “professionalism” among officials.

Bruce Crawford, then SNP minister for parliamentary business, wrote a paper for the cabinet in May 2008 about the “creation, management and publication of government information”.

It said there was to be a “fundamental and far reaching change in the way in which the Scottish Government handles information” in order to improve transparency.

It stated: “Experience during the year since May 2007 has led the First Minister and the Permanent Secretary to conclude there is a clear need to develop and embed throughout the Scottish Government a culture of professionalism, and the exercise of judgement (sic), when creating information (particularly in emails).”

It said a pilot exercise would seek “improvements in the tone and language of material”.

According to the cabinet meeting minutes, Sir John introduced the paper in Mr Crawford’s absence and said it concerned in part “the professionalism of the Civil Service”.

The minutes went on: “He [Sir John] said, regarding the professionalism of the civil service, that the advent of e-mail had corrupted the formality of communications, including advice to ministers. 

“This had led to some briefings that were poorly written, contained ambiguous advice and could lend themselves to mis-interpretation.

“He said that, to address this, the paper proposed the introduction of a series of non-discretionary templates for all non-personal communication.

“He said that the UK Government were also considering the issue of restoring professionalism in the context of the effects of e-mail use; and that the proposals in the paper offered the opportunity to take action ahead of them.”

Sir John said the paper also proposed the Government should “publish more information proactively”, which should mean it receiving fewer freedom of information requests.

However “he judged that Ministers should expect to see continued use of FOI requests as a weapon of apolitical attacks”.

The cabinet noted the plans, which were said to be of “direct interest” to Mr Salmond.