Top Scottish civil servant: my choice to include ex-ministers in anti-harassment policy
|
Version 0 of 1. James Hynd says policy was drafted to close ‘gaps’ rather than as response to Salmond misconduct rumours The senior civil servant who drafted the policy used to investigate the former first minister Alex Salmond for alleged sexual misconduct has said he did so on his own initiative, without any political direction. James Hynd, the Scottish government’s head of cabinet, parliament and governance, told MSPs on Tuesday he realised its personnel policies needed tightening up in October 2017 after seeing “rather unsavoury headlines” about alleged misconduct at Westminster and in Whitehall. Giving evidence under oath, Hynd conceded he knew of rumours about alleged misconduct involving Salmond, which Salmond has repeatedly denied, before choosing to include former ministers in the new anti-harassment policy. Hynd said that decision was not made by the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, or by Leslie Evans, Scotland’s chief civil servant, who asked him to draw up a new policy on sexual harassment covering serving ministers on 31 October 2017. He insisted he alone decided to make former ministers the focus of his first draft of the policy, partly because he was in charge of the Scottish government’s ministerial code. He said he thought it was a “gap” that needed to be closed. “Those concerns were generated by, frankly, the rather unsavoury headlines which were emanating from Westminster and from Whitehall about alleged behaviour down there,” he told Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader. “Given my ministerial code responsibilities, I was already thinking about if we had the same kind of allegations surfacing in Scotland, what would we do here?’ Hynd was the second witness to appear before a Holyrood committee’s inquiry into the Scottish government’s mishandling of its inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct brought by two female officials against Salmond in January 2018, dating back to his period as first minister. Salmond has repeatedly denied any criminal misconduct. The Scottish government investigation into the claims was quashed by the court of session, Scotland’s civil court, in January 2019 after he sued. Evans admitted the government’s handling of the investigation was unlawful and had the appearance of bias because it was led by a senior personnel official, Judith Mackinnon, who had had prior contact with both complainants. In March 2020, Salmond was acquitted of 14 sexual offence charges, including one of attempted rape, after a trial at the high court in Edinburgh. He is due to give evidence to the Holyrood inquiry later this year. He alleges that both the internal inquiry and the subsequent Police Scotland investigation were inspired and driven by senior figures in Sturgeon’s government and the Scottish National party, which he once led. Sturgeon has described his claims as “a heap of nonsense”. Asked by Alex Cole-Hamilton, a Liberal Democrat MSP, whether he had heard “the scuttlebutt” about alleged bullying or sexual misconduct by Salmond, Hynd replied: “Well, yes, I mean things were said. Whether they were true or not, I have no idea.” Nicola Richards, the government’s director of people, giving evidence immediately after Hynd, did not deny she had also heard “chatter” about allegations against Salmond. “I couldn’t give you a specific answer to that,” she told Cole-Hamilton. She confirmed that two civil servants who had flagged concerns about Salmond were given advanced sight of the new anti-harassment policies in mid-December 2017, before they were approved by Sturgeon and Evans. One of those women made formal complaints against Salmond in January 2018. Richards and Hynd insisted the anti-harassment policy was robust, lawful and appropriate, and said it was still in force. Richards admitted, however, that Salmond’s court challenge had established it had not been properly applied during the Salmond inquiry. |