Permanent secretary defends civil service work on independence prospectus papers

The Scottish Government’s permanent secretary has defended civil servants’ work on the prospectus papers for Scottish independence.

John-Paul Marks, the Scottish Government’s top civil servant, said it is important that officials serve the government of the day with “impartiality”.

UK ministers have questioned whether it is appropriate for civil servants in Edinburgh to work for the Scottish Government’s Minister for Independence, arguing that the issue of the constitution is reserved to Westminster.

The series of prospectus papers, which began under Nicola Sturgeon’s government, are designed to refresh the case for Scottish independence.

Mr Marks appeared at Holyrood’s Finance Committee on Tuesday, along with Deputy First Minister Shona Robison.

He said: “We serve the government of the day, that includes with regards constitutional reform.

“It has been well understood under devolution for many years that the civil service in the Scottish Government serves the Scottish Government and their priorities.

“And we provide policy advice, including the development of the prospectus paper series for this government to set out its constitutional objectives.”

He said the First Minister had “clear, proper and regular grounds” to appoint his ministerial team, and “it is necessary for the civil service to serve that ministerial team with impartiality”.

The Finance Committee is conducting an inquiry into the effectiveness of the Scottish Government’s decision-making.

Discussing this earlier, Mr Marks told the committee that civil servants’ advice to ministers was frank and on a “warts and all” basis.

However, he was quizzed on recent cases where civil servants’ minutes were allegedly not taken for certain meetings, including around Ferguson Marine and the handling of complaints relating to Alex Salmond.

Mr Marks said: “Those historic examples are regrettable, we’ve said that before.”

He said there has been significant work on record-keeping and the retrieval system for information within the government.

Shona Robison told the committee that decision-making in the Scottish Government can be “frustratingly long”.

MSPs on the cross-party committee have already been told by former officials the decision-making process is “rushed, unclear and unstructured”, something which was put to Ms Robison on Tuesday.

But she said: “It’s not been my experience, I have to say.

“Sometimes it can feel the opposite, that decisions sometimes can be frustratingly long to make.”

Advice and discussions can take some time “even when there’s an eagerness to go on and do what’s in front of you”, she said.

Saying she had been in government on and off for 15 years, Ms Robison said: “When you gain confidence and experience as a minister, that enables you to make decisions perhaps more quickly and actually to be able to challenge the advice that comes in front of you a bit more readily than a minister that perhaps doesn’t have that experience and might quite rightly take longer.”

The committee’s convener Michael Marra asked her what lessons were learned about the government’s gender recognition legislation.

Ms Robison led this Bill through Holyrood when she was social justice secretary.

She said: “One of my reflections is – was there a way of trying to build more of a consensus around the issue that I felt very strongly was important to try and do.

“Could we have done that at an earlier stage, was it possible?”

Finding consensus became difficult due to the increasingly polarised nature of the debate, she said.