LESLIE Evans was paid “compensation” by the Scottish Government after she had left her role as the head of the civil service, The Herald on Sunday can reveal.

The terms of the former permanent secretary’s exit from St Andrew’s House have been shrouded in mystery.

Though her last day in the office was on December 31, 2021, she effectively remained in post until the end of March, taking three months of “outstanding annual leave”.

However, details of payments, released under Freedom of Information, reveal that Ms Evans was then “compensated” to cover a separate “three-month unpaid waiting period.”

The business appointment rules governing the conduct of ministers, special advisers and senior civil servants as they leave government, state that Permanent Secretaries are “subject to a minimum waiting period of three months between leaving paid Civil Service employment and taking up an outside appointment or employment” because “of their role at the highest level of Government, and their access to a wide range of sensitive information.”

The rules add that it “may be appropriate to continue to pay former civil servants, including special advisers, who are required to observe a waiting period before taking up an external role.”

It is not known how much compensation Ms Evans was paid, but it was agreed “subject to consultation” with the UK Government’s Cabinet Office.

Her seven years in the post were tumultuous. Ms Evans was a key figure in the Alex Salmond affair, overseeing the disastrous internal probe into sexual misconduct claims against the former First Minister.

Mr Salmond successfully challenged the process in a judicial review, showing that it had been “tainted by apparent bias” as the Investigating Officer had prior contact with one of the women who had complained about him.

That resulted in the Court of Session ordering the Government to pay him £512,000 in costs.

An investigation by a Holyrood committee into the unlawful probe singled out Ms Evans for criticism, saying that she was one of only a “few people who had been aware of the prior contact of the Investigating Officer”.

And despite that, she had prolonged the court case by not telling the Government’s lawyers.

MSPs on the committee said this “individual failing” was “as significant as the general corporate failing.”

Despite the blunders on her watch, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stood by Ms Evans throughout and refused to sack her.

Ms Evans’s three months of annual leave were only discovered when she was invited by Holyrood’s Finance Committee to share reflections and insights into her role working for the government.

She was repeatedly reassured that the committee did not want to re-run the Salmond affair or revisit events examined by a previous Holyrood inquiry into it.

However, in March, the Office of the Permanent Secretary wrote to the committee refusing on her behalf, letting the MSPs know that as Ms Evans was on leave she was “effectively no longer a post-holder within the Scottish Government and is not able to speak on behalf of or represent the views of Scottish Ministers”.

The SNP committee convener Kenny Gibson accused Ms Evans of "discourtesy."

According to the FOI, Ms Evans also received another payment for 19.5 days of annual leave that were not taken. On the mandarin’s £175,000 a year salary, that would be worth around £13,000.

The compensation and the holiday pay were on top of a lump sum estimated to be around £245,000 and an annual pension thought to be worth £85,000-a-year.

The Scottish Government said the exact amount of the lump sum and the pension would be detailed in their next set of Consolidated Accounts.

A spokesman for Mr Salmond told The Herald on Sunday: “The Parliamentary Committee unanimously found that Leslie Evans as Permanent Secretary was not just corporately but individually responsible for the ‘prolonged, expensive and unsuccessful defence’ of the Judicial Review of her procedure which the Court of Session found to be ‘unlawful’, ‘unfair’ and ‘tainted by apparent bias’.

“The Committee said that those responsible should be held ‘accountable’. 

“However, instead of asking for her resignation, the Scottish Government seems to have afforded her every possible financial advantage on her retirement. The question is why?”

Liz Smith, the Tory Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy said: “It was unacceptable earlier this year when Leslie Evans refused to accept the request from Kenny Gibson, Convenor of the Finance Committee, to appear before MSPs to answer questions about her work as Permanent Secretary and now it seems there is yet more controversy over her payment when she stood down.

“The SNP Government still has major questions to answer about the use of taxpayers’ money with regard to the former Permanent Secretary’s payments.”

Lib Dem Willie Rennie said: “Between her pay packet and her pension, Leslie Evans has received a substantial pay out. 

“Now it emerges that she was paid even more than was previously known about.

“This is all the more frustrating given her refusal to give evidence to parliament over Scottish Government processes.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “As previously confirmed, Leslie Evans left the Civil Service as planned upon completion of her contract.

"Taking account of accrued leave, Ms Evans’s final day at work was December 31, 2021 and she was paid for remaining outstanding leave as at March 31, 2022.”