Justice secretary apologises to grooming gangs expert

Justice Secretary Angela Constance has publicly apologised to a grooming gangs expert after being accused of misrepresenting her views.

Opposition MSPs have called for Constance to resign over comments made about Prof Alexis Jay in parliament.

The SNP minister survived a vote of no confidence brought by opposition MSPs who claim the chamber was misled, but she faced further scrutiny at a committee hearing.

Constance told Holyrood's education committee that she had not wanted Prof Jay to become the focus of "so much intrusion and attention".

The justice secretary said that she initially made the apology in a "personal" telephone conversation with the academic, with no government official on the call.

When committee convener and Conservative MSP Douglas Ross suggested this could be a breach of the ministerial code, she said she did not believe that it warranted an investigation.

That came after Prof Jay told the committee that she would welcome the parliamentary record being amended to clarify her comments on inquiries into grooming gangs.

The row centres on comments made by Constance in September, when she opposed a Conservative amendment to a victims bill calling for the government to consider an inquiry into grooming gangs.

Arguing against the amendment, the justice secretary cited Prof Jay, who she said "did not support further inquiries" into child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Yet emails subsequently published by the government showed Prof Jay wanted it to be clarified that she made such a statement "in the context of the England and Wales Public Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse, which I chaired".

The academic added: "It had nothing to do with [the Conservative] amendment, or the position in Scotland, as could be interpreted from your statement."

The government issued a clarification in meeting notes last month but not in the Holyrood chamber, meaning that the parliamentary record - which includes a transcript of comments made in the chamber - is unchanged.

Constance has described her comments about the academic as "accurate" - but opponents claim she is in breach of the ministerial code for failing to correct the record.

The justice secretary survived a vote of no confidence at Holyrood on Tuesday after the Greens sided with SNP MSPs to reject the motion.

Appearing in front of Holyrood's education committee, Constance sought to explain why she had not corrected the parliamentary record after the academic asked for her remarks to be clarified.

The justice secretary said she had been making "a general debating point" and it was not clear to her how to correct the record, though she acknowledged that she could have expressed herself differently.

She told MSPs that she would now consider ways to correct the record.

Reiterating her apology, Constance said: "It was never my intention to have Professor Jay be the subject of so much intrusion and attention and I very much regret that."

She added that she hoped attention could return to victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.

The minister said she made a "professional apology" in a "personal call" to Prof Jay.

She told the committee that there was no government official on the call but that she wrote up a note of it afterwards.

The evidence session came after the mother of a grooming gangs survivor, known as Taylor, said she no longer had confidence in the justice secretary.

Constance said that she always aimed to be "sensitive, compassionate and take on board the views of all victims".

She added: "I am very sorry that Taylor and her mum feel the way they do and it's not for me to in any way deny or reinterpret their views on me or on any other matter."

Ross said he was "puzzled" why the parliamentary record had not been corrected, telling the committee it was not a "difficult" process.

In a statement, the Tory MSP said Constance's position was "untenable".

"Her private apology to Professor Jay proves that even she knows she was wrong to misrepresent her views," he said.

Ross said that the SNP minister had "brazenly admitted" a breach of the ministerial code and called for an investigation into her conduct.

The Scottish government announced earlier this month that there is to be a national review of the evidence on the operation of grooming gangs in Scotland.

It will be carried out by independent inspectorates, and overseen by an expert panel led by Prof Jay.

The expert panel will advise ministers on the outcome of the review, which will inform a future decision on whether or not there should be a judge-led public inquiry.

Prof Jay told the committee that she had never sought an apology but wanted there to be an "accurate record" of her quote cited in parliament.

The grooming gangs expert said did not want to escalate the matter any further or to create an "adversarial" situation with Constance.

She told MSPs that she was "surprised" her letter to the minister raising concerns about her comments in parliament had not been immediately published, and said she would welcome the parliamentary record being clarified.

Prof Jay also said that not enough was known about child sexual exploitation in Scotland and that the review of grooming gangs set up by the Scottish government was an "unusual" arrangement.

The academic added that that she found out on Tuesday that the group overseeing the review had still to be given instructions by ministers.

Later on Wednesday, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth announced that the first part of the review would involve scrutiny of local authority data on the threat of group-based sexual abuse and exploitation.

She said that victims had been "let down by a system which should have protected them" and added survivors "must be listened to".

However, she said there was currently "limited evidence" on the extent of the issue of group-based child sexual abuse, and that data had to be gathered before the government made a decision on launching an inquiry.

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said survivors had lost confidence in the government, and said Constance's comments to the committee had raised more questions about her conduct.

Labour justice spokeswoman Paul McNeill said that the government's response to calls for an inquiry had been "chaotic and cobbled together" and questioned whether the government had treated the issue "with the seriousness it deserves".

After weeks of MSPs talking about Angela Constance and Prof Alexis Jay, at last they have heard directly from the pair of them.

It was a session pulled in two directions, between a burning political row and the serious issue of child protection.

Opposition members were particularly keen to dig into the question of whether Angela Constance had misrepresented Prof Jay and thus misled parliament, and there was a little movement in that the minister said she would look for ways to clarify things on the record.

Ultimately the political row may move on to a different alleged breach of the ministerial code, around a phone call between the pair which had no government officials present.

Government sources insist there still isn't a breach there, as the minister swiftly put a note on the record – but with an election looming the political questions are sure to continue.

There is a larger issue behind all of this – of child sexual exploitation and the possibility for a judge-led inquiry – which SNP members were particularly keen to shift the focus back to.

Perhaps the most striking thing on that front was just how big a job the current review is.

There are four inspectorate bodies gathering evidence, following on from the police's efforts on the same front, as well as the large group now headed by Prof Jay - which will split into sub groups to do "deep dives" into particular issues.

All of that comes before a decision is made about whether there will be a full judge-led public inquiry.

Realistically work of this depth and seriousness is not going to be rushed.

It sounds like it's going to take quite some time.