ALEX Salmond has demanded that the Scottish Government releases its legal advice justifying pressing ahead with fighting a “doomed” judicial review into complaints against him which cost taypayers more than £500,000.
The open court record from the judicial review, that Alex Salmond won against the Scottish Government, has been released – showing that officials admitted the “bias” issue that doomed its legal fight a full two months before it conceded the case.
The Scottish Government confirmed in November 2018 that the official who investigated claims of sexual misconduct against Mr Salmond had been in prior contact with his accusers.
However it was not until January 2019 that the Government formally conceded defeat.
Labour deputy leader, Jackie Baillie, said the revelation shows the Scottish Government's legal case "was doomed from the beginning".
Now Mr Salmond has called on the Scottish Government to make public the legal advice it received over the judicial review and has agreed for his advice to be published.
In a statement from his legal team, Mr Salmond “calls on the Scottish Government to publish the legal advice” it received “on the prospects of successfully defending the judicial review”.
Mr Salmond’s lawyers have already made clear that the Scottish Government can release the documents, adding “there is nothing preventing that publication”.
READ MORE: Salmond Inquiry: Scottish Government accused of 'incompetence'
The statement on behalf of Mr Salmond added: “Moreover, there is a clear and overwhelming public interest in the public having the opportunity to read and understand the advice which is said to have justified the Scottish Government spending sums significantly in excess of £500,000 of taxpayers’ money in defending this action.
“He also calls on the Scottish Government to produce all the relevant material from the judicial review which has thus far been held back from the committee.
“Mr Salmond also considers that in order to make substantive and meaningful submissions to the committee, he requires to be able to make reference to a number of documents revealed to him and to which he alluded to after being acquitted of all charges in the High Court.
“In response, Crown Office has made clear that if he does so, even to a Parliamentary Committee, he is at risk of breaking the law. Mr Salmond therefore calls on the Lord Advocate, in the public interest, to allow him to place the relevant evidence before the Committee.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel