Alex Salmond urged to provide evidence to harassment committee

Alex Salmond has been urged to submit evidence to the committee established to investigate the handling of harassment complaints against him within the next week.

Committee convener Linda Fabiani has written to Salmond making a “firm request” for information relating to the judicial review, legal advice which informed his approach to the complaints handling process and his perspective on evidence taken by the committee so far.

He has also been invited to appear before the committee in December.

Fabiani has previously expressed frustration with the willingness of parties to cooperate with the inquiry, accusing the Scottish Government and Salmond of “obstruction”.

Various submissions to the committee have alluded to legal restrictions preventing some documents being shared.

However, the Court of Session recently confirmed the government and Salmond were free to take back evidence they submitted during Salmond’s 2019 judicial review and give it to the inquiry.

In the letter to Salmond, Fabiani wrote: “Notwithstanding these barriers to a full submission from you, and your desire to make one full submission that fully sets out your position, the committee considers your evidence to be an important perspective in questioning Scottish Government officials and ministers in the final three phases of its inquiry.

“For that reason, I repeat again, on behalf of the committee the firm request to be provided with a written submission from you at your earliest opportunity, otherwise your perspective cannot be taken into account in questioning witnesses as the inquiry progresses.

“The inquiry must complete oral evidence taking in sufficient time to enable it to analyse all evidence, produce its findings in a published report and receive a response to its recommendations from the Scottish Government.

“To ensure this can happen before dissolution of parliament at the end of March 2021, the committee has provisionally scheduled oral evidence taking through the remainder of 2020 including taking evidence from you in December.

“Again, the committee appreciates that you may put in additional submissions to supplement an initial submission, as further information becomes available to you.”

The committee is investigating what went wrong with the Scottish Government’s handling of harassment complaints made against Salmond.

That probe was found to be unlawful by the Court of Session and resulted in the government having to pay Salmond over £500,000 in legal expenses.

The committee has also written again to former permanent secretary Sir Peter Housden, repeating questions put to him about when he raised harassment concerns about Salmond with then deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon.

It said his refusal to answer when giving oral evidence last month was an “overly cautious” reading of the civil service code and the civil service management code.