Alex Salmond was not given sufficient information about two sexual harassment allegations made against him, according to lawyers acting for the former first minister in the first court hearing of his legal challenge against the Scottish government.
At a procedural hearing at the court of session in Edinburgh on Tuesday, Judge Lord Pentland said lawyers for the Scottish government would attack the relevance of Salmond’s case, arguing that he had been given “the gist” of the complaints against him. Ronnie Clancy QC, representing Salmond, said more information should have been provided and he questioned the procedure under which the complaints were investigated.
The civil action was launched by Salmond in August after details emerged of a Scottish government inquiry into sexual misconduct allegations made against him by two government staff members relating to his behaviour while he was first minister.
Salmond, twice leader of the Scottish National party, has vigorously denied the allegations. He is challenging the internal investigation by Leslie Evans, the permanent secretary of the Scottish government, under a new complaints process agreed by the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, in December 2017. The two complaints were received in January and were later passed to the police.
He has since resigned from the SNP and raised £100,000 for his legal expenses through a crowdfunding appeal.
In a brief hearing setting out procedural parameters in advance of the full hearing, which will take place in January, Pentland told the court that the Scottish government’s position was that Sturgeon agreed the complaints procedure on behalf of the government on 20 December 2017 and formal complaints were lodged on 16 and 24 January 2018.
Clancy questioned whether initial informal contact between those alleging sexual harassment and government officials was made before the new procedure came into force, suggesting that one of the complaints now under investigation had first been raised and resolved in December 2013.
Pentland called for clarification on whether a previous harassment protocol – known as the fairness at work policy – had been applied to one of the complaints, but Christine O’Neill, acting for the Scottish government, said that, even if this was the case, the pre-formal complaint process was “essentially irrelevant” to the way Salmond had been treated after the formal investigation had commenced this year.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “We dispute the statements from Mr Salmond’s counsel as to what happened in 2013 and we will set out our position in the full hearing. We maintain our position that the complaints received in January 2018 were the only two recorded complaints about Mr Salmond. These could not be ignored or swept under the carpet and were investigated under the procedure agreed by the first minister in December last year.”
The court heard that two other individuals – not named in court – had lodged written evidence regarding that complaint.
Salmond has previously accused the Scottish government of denying him natural justice by refusing to allow him access to the evidence or to present witnesses.
Pentland asked for both parties to agree a chronology in advance of the substantive case, which is due to be heard over four days from 15 January.
A spokesperson for Salmond said: “We have no comment to make beyond that Alex is looking forward to the opportunity to have his full case stated and we will do our talking before the court of session in January.”
