To ask the Scottish Government how much it spent on (a) internal and (b) external legal costs in pursuing or defending any court action involving former First Minister, Alex Salmond.
Internal legal costs are not available because in line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded because there is no business need to do this.
The legal costs in defending and settling the Judicial Review brought by Mr Salmond in 2018 are published on the Scottish Government website.
The costs of legal services regarding the former First Minister’s judicial review are published at: Costs of legal services regarding former First Minister's judicial review: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).
The costs of the settlement in respect of the former First Minister’s legal fees in the Judicial Review are published at: Former First Minister Legal fees: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).
As the action brought by Mr Salmond against the Scottish Government is live litigation, we are not able to publish the Scottish Government’s legal costs at this stage. We will publish this information in due course.