Alex Salmond inquiry: Scottish parliament removes and redacts former SNP leader’s evidence

Former first minister decides not to appear at inquiry after redaction of written evidence

Former first minister Alex Salmond (PA)

The Scottish parliament has redacted part of Alex Salmond’s written evidence to an inquiry examining the botched handling of harassment complaints – prompting the former first minister to cancel a scheduled appearance.

Mr Salmond had decided he will no longer appear at the investigating committee on Wednesday. “The committee will instead meet in private to discuss the implications of Mr Salmond’s response,” said a spokesperson for the Scottish parliament.

In the full written evidence published on Monday evening, Mr Salmond criticised Nicola Sturgeon and the Crown Office – the body responsible for prosecuting crimes in Scotland.

The Crown Office subsequently wrote to parliament to express concerns about the evidence published, purportedly over the possibility it could amount to contempt of court.

Despite being in the public domain for approximately 16 hours, Holyrood’s corporate body decided to pull the evidence from its website on Tuesday afternoon and censor sections before republishing an edited version.

Mr Salmond’s lawyers have demanded the legal justification for parliamentary authorities’ redactions.

The decision to remove 474 words from the evidence suggested there is a “material risk” for Mr Salmond if he appeared before the committee, said David McKie of Levy and McRae solicitors.

“We therefore require to see urgently the legal basis for the proposed redactions in order that we can properly advise our client and make further representations.”

A Scottish parliament spokesperson said: “Following representations from the Crown Office on Monday evening, the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body agreed collectively this morning that it will remove the Alex Salmond submission on the ministerial code from its website with immediate effect and republish it later today in a redacted form.”

A Crown Office spokesman said: “In all cases where the Crown becomes aware of issues of potential contempt, these will be considered carefully and action will be taken if considered appropriate.”

Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon campaigning together in 2015 (PA)

In 2019 the Scottish government had to pay the former first minister legal expenses of more than £500,000 after it was found to have acted unlawfully during its own investigation.

Ms Sturgeon has insisted Mr Salmond would not be able to prove there was any conspiracy against him when he appears before the committee of MSPs examining the matter.

“Now, in front of the parliament, the burden of proof is on Alex Salmond. It is time for insinuation and assertion to be replaced with actual evidence,” she said on Monday.

“If, as I fully expect, there is no evidence, because there was no conspiracy, then people will draw their own conclusions.”

The Sturgeon-Salmond row comes as the head of the FDA union for civil servants criticised the behaviour of MSPs on the committee, claiming top Scottish government officials had been treated with “almost open hostility”.

On Tuesday Dave Penman, the union’s general secretary, accused members of the committee of “deliberately misquoting” evidence.

“They have been happy to make public comment, as well as retweeting press articles that make derogatory comments about civil servants and their evidence,” Mr Penman told The Scotsman.

Mr Penman’s comments follow a report in The Sunday Times suggesting the Scottish government’s permanent secretary, Leslie Evans, could be “thrown under a bus” by SNP members of the committee when the inquiry is concluded.