The key legal advice that underpinned the Scottish Government’s defence of the Judicial Review taken by Alex Salmond will be released today.
Last night’s decision by Deputy First Minister John Swinney has received the prior agreement of the Law Officers in line with paragraph 2.40 of the Scottish Ministerial Code.
Ahead of release, under the General Data Protection Regulation, legal notifications to individuals impacted are required. These are expected to be complete and, subject to them, the Parliament will receive the material immediately thereafter.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “In normal circumstances, government legal advice is not released. Indeed, such is the importance of being able to get frank, private advice, it is almost unheard of for the legal advice to be released.
“But, we have to acknowledge that the issues at stake now are not normal. The very integrity of the legal system is being questioned.
“Serious allegations have been made. This material allows people to confirm that these allegations are false.
“We have already shared in private with the Scottish Parliament’s committee on these issues the substance of the advice.
“Now, we recognise that in order to counter to the false claims being made by some, we must go further. Subject to the mandatory legal checks and processes, we will release the key legal advice.”
The ongoing controversy centres on legal advice given to the Scottish government after former First Minister Alex Salmond launched judicial review proceedings in 2018 over the way harassment complaints against him had been handled.
The government finally had to admit it had acted unlawfully because its investigating officer had had prior contact with the two complainers – but the error left taxpayers to foot the bill for Mr Salmond’s legal bill of over £500,000.
Mr Swinney had faced a vote of no confidence at Holyrood if he refused to release the information. The vote of confidence would have carried as the Scottish Greens supported the motion, ensuring a majority in parliament.
This was the THIRD time parliament had requested the release of the papers.
If the legal advice is published in full – IF – it will help to shed some more light on a complicated case which is damaging the Scottish government’s reputation and calls into question the way our democracy functions.
If the published legal advice is heavily redacted, however, (note Mr Swinney’s used of the word ‘key’ in his statement), it’s likely that the vote of no confidence will go ahead.
Key player Lord Advocate James Wolfe QC, who was heavily criticised when former First Minister Alex Salmond gave evidence to the committee on Friday, is set to give evidence to the Holyrood committee this morning, while First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will give her much-awaited testimony tomorrow.