Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints

Meeting date: Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Official Report 597KB pdf

Remit

I welcome everyone to the third meeting in 2020 of the Committee on the Scottish Government’s Handling of Harassment Complaints. Before we begin, I think that it is important to reiterate the remit for the committee’s inquiry; how the committee intends to conduct the inquiry; and a reminder of the purpose of this first evidence session. The committee’s remit is:

“To consider and report on the actions of the First Minister, Scottish Government officials and special advisers in dealing with complaints about Alex Salmond, former First Minister, considered under the Scottish Government’s ‘Handling of harassment complaints involving current or former ministers’ procedure and actions in relation to the Scottish Ministerial Code.”

The committee’s approach will be to establish where issues arose in the handling of the complaints and the actions in relation to the Scottish ministerial code; to consider what actions were taken that gave rise to those issues; to consider whether the policies are sufficient and fit for purpose, or whether it was the application of the processes that gave rise to those issues; to consider whether robust governance of policy evaluation and decision making is in place; and to consider whether any lessons could be learned to avoid the issues arising again.

The committee will not revisit the separate matter of the criminal proceedings that were brought against Mr Salmond, nor will it reinvestigate or consider the substance of the complaints that were originally made to the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government written statement sets out the background to the development of the harassment policy, including consideration of organisational culture in the context of the results of the 2016 people survey. Issues around organisational culture are likely to be an on-going theme. It is important to stress that we are looking at this in relation to how that culture played into the development of the harassment policy. This is about the collective culture and values of an organisation, namely the Scottish Government. It is not about looking into individual situations, behaviour or specific cases of concern.

We have agreed that we will break down the inquiry into three general headings: the actions taken in relation to the policy on handling harassment complaints; the judicial review; and the actions taken in relation to the ministerial code. Today’s session will focus on the first of those, in particular the development of the policy on handling harassment complaints.

Our agreed approach to our inquiry and our statement on how we will handle information and evidence have been published on our website. The parameters that are set out in the written statement apply to the conduct of everyone, including committee members and witnesses.

Finally, as we set out in our written statement on the handling of information and evidence on our website, it is vital that everyone who takes part in our proceedings complies with both the court order that was made by the Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian, which prevents publication of the identify of, or information leading to the identification of, the complainants in the criminal proceedings; and the court order that was made by Lord Woolman, which prevents publication of the names and designations, past and present, of Ms A and Ms B, who raised complaints under the harassment policy, or publication of information that would lead to their identification. That means not only that the names and designations of the complainants and Ms A and Ms B should not be disclosed but that everyone must avoid disclosing information that could lead to jigsaw identification in light of material in the public domain.

Given our responsibilities, please be aware that I might have to suspend the committee meeting if we come up against any issues in relation to our obligations under the court orders, or other legal issues.