The SNP Government’s secrecy has been exposed by new bombshell legal advice. (Image: Getty)
The SNP Government’s secrecy around a report on Nicola Sturgeon has been exposed by new bombshell legal advice.
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The Scottish Government's splashed out ￡30k on hiding a report into whether Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code.
Scotland's Information Commissioner David Hamilton has published the legal advice which he received to challenge the Scottish Government in court over its handling of document, reports the Scottish Daily Express.
James Hamilton's report into the former First Minister was published - but it was almost fully redacted. However a member of the public applied for the unedited document through a Freedom of Information request.
What followed was that the Nationalist Administration repeatedly rejected the request, denying that it held the information.
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The Scottish Government's splashed out ￡30k on hiding a report on Nicola Sturgeon. (Image: Getty)
David Hamilton stepped in as he found that the report was held - but the government then took the highly unusual step of taking him to court. However, it took the judges mere seconds to decide that the SNP were, in fact, completely wrong.
Following this another FOI request was sent in for the legal advice taken to ascertain if Ministers ignored it and if they then wrongly threw public cash on what they knew was an unwinnable case.
David Hamilton has now published his own legal advice from David Johnstone KC which exposes that the Scottish Government did in fact choose to fight a doomed case. He wrote that Mr James Hamilton was instructed to investigate ministerial conduct and his report was submitted to the Deputy First Minister.
He said: "The Code itself emphasises the duties incumbent on ministers and their collective responsibility. This investigation was instructed and carried out, evidence was obtained, and the report produced, for the purpose of considering whether a minister’s conduct complied with the Code and deciding on appropriate sanctions if it did not.
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"Information was obtained or created for that purpose. That in my view amounts to an appropriate connexion with the Scottish Ministers such that the information in question is ‘held’ by them."
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SNP Ministers now have a deadline of October 26 to send their legal advice to the requestor.
The report formed a key part of the inquiry into the government's handling of sexual harassment complaints against Alex Salmond.
Ms Sturgeon was accused of misleading MSPs by not informing them of a meeting she had with Mr Salmond's adviser Geoff Aberdein where she was told about harassment complaints against him. She told MSPs she had found out on a later date, claiming that she had not remembered this meeting.