Watchdog says he 'can't trust ministers' with Sturgeon inquiry files

The Scottish government is being threatened with further legal action by the information commissioner over the release of documents about an ethics investigation into Nicola Sturgeon.

David Hamilton said he could no longer trust the government to handle some files "unsupervised" after being given "preposterous and unacceptable" excuses for not complying with his orders.

Ministers have repeatedly missed deadlines to publish correspondence about the Sturgeon inquiry, which cleared her of misleading parliament during a Holyrood probe into the handling of harassment claims against Alex Salmond.

The Scottish government insisted it was handling the documents with "the highest standards of impartiality and integrity".

The information commissioner is dealing with six different freedom of information appeals relating to the Sturgeon and Salmond inquiries.

The government published a large bundle of documents last month following a court battle.

Hamilton's latest criticism comes after he sought reassurances that ministers had complied with a 2024 order to release legal advice relating to a previous appeal about inquiry evidence.

After receiving a response, the commissioner said he believed the government had failed to comply and that he was considering legal action.

Hamilton said in a statement: "Perhaps worse than the fact that Scottish ministers have once again failed to comply with one of my decisions, is that they appear to have tried to conceal this breach of trust with unjustified delays and a wall of silence.

"The excuses I have now been given, both in writing and in person, are preposterous and unacceptable."

The commissioner said he had expressed his dismay to Permanent Secretary Joe Griffin, Scotland's most senior civil servant.

He said: "I can no longer trust the government to handle this information unsupervised and will explore more intrusive options to ensure compliance."

The commissioner complained that the handling of freedom of information requests relating to the Sturgeon inquiry stood in "stark contrast to the way nearly every other case of theirs is handled".

Hamilton added that he would "now need to assess whether I can resource a further intervention to examine the unusual case handling practices in these cases".

In his letter to Hamilton, Griffin said: "I would reiterate that ensuring compliance with court orders has been ministers' absolute priority throughout this matter."

The permanent secretary said he had been assured that the government had not withheld information it had been ordered to publish and that ministers had fully complied with previous rulings.

Griffin also confirmed that the large bundle of documents released last month had been temporarily removed from the government website "to redact some additional information".

He said although the incident was regrettable, it was due to "the scale and complexity" of publishing more than 700 documents.

First Minister John Swinney previously told parliament that the freedom of information requests had been complicated by the need to make redactions to avoid identifying women who had made allegations against Salmond.

Salmond successfully sued the government in 2019 over its mishandling of complaints against him.

The former first minister, who died in 2024, was cleared of sexually assaulting nine women in 2020.

The freedom of information row dates back to March 2021, when James Hamilton, an Irish lawyer, cleared Sturgeon of breaching the ministerial code.

A freedom of information request was then made to the Scottish government for all written evidence used in the investigation.

The government had originally insisted that as Hamilton was an independent adviser on the ministerial code and he was not subject to freedom of information legislation.

However, the information commissioner intervened and ordered the government to look at the case again.

Ministers then challenged this decision in the Court of Session, sparking a lengthy series of complex appeals.

A Scottish government spokesperson said: "The Permanent Secretary met the Scottish Information Commissioner on 11 March and assured him that these cases were being handled properly, in line with statutory duties and with the highest standards of impartiality and integrity."