Sturgeon inquiry documents ‘speak for themselves’ – Swinney

First Minister John Swinney has said the released James Hamilton KC investigation documents “speak for themselves”, after they revealed Nicola Sturgeon accused her predecessor Alex Salmond of “a bit of a revenge mission”.

The Scottish Government this week released 18 bundles of papers linked to an investigation by Mr Hamilton into whether Ms Sturgeon breached the ministerial code.

In 2021, he cleared the then first minister of any breach of the code relating to her involvement in the Scottish Government’s botched investigation into harassment allegations against Mr Salmond.

In a transcript of an interview with Mr Hamilton, Ms Sturgeon told him of a “lingering concern” about Mr Salmond’s behaviour which went back to November 2017.

She said: “He said something to me about, you know, you can’t have stories like this running because you get one and the flood gates will open, kind of thing.”

She added a “combination of things left me with a ‘is there something that is about to come forward about Mr Salmond’s behaviour?'”

She said that in discussions with Mr Salmond, “he was admitting to me something that was in my view deeply inappropriate and a gross abuse of his power as first minister”.

Ms Sturgeon went on to tell Mr Hamilton: “Mr Salmond is, and it’s a matter of great personal, you know, grief to me, he’s on a bit of a revenge mission right now.”

Speaking to the Press Association on Wednesday, Mr Swinney said: “These documents have been set out, they relate to issues in the past. They’ve been set out comprehensively by the Scottish Government, respecting as we have to do court orders that are in place in relation to this case, and the documents speak for themselves.”

In the wake of the Hamilton report, a request was made for documents to be made public under freedom of information laws – with Information Commissioner David Hamilton taking legal action against the Scottish Government in January this year after it missed a deadline for publishing the papers.

The papers show Mr Salmond, who died in October 2024, complained to Mr Hamilton KC about the remit of his investigation – which was set down by then deputy first minister Mr Swinney.

In an email to Mr Hamilton, former first minister Mr Salmond said the remit “lays a surprising stress” on whether Ms Sturgeon “interfered in the Scottish Government investigation”.

He added: “It might even be suspected that this remit has been set up as a straw man to knock down.

“There is no general bar on ministers intervening in a civil service process of which I am aware and indeed there are occasions when ministers are actually required by the code to intervene to correct civil service behaviour.”

As the papers were published, a Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Extensive work has taken place to review these documents and ensure that as much information as possible can be placed in the public domain.”

With a separate court case also brought against Mr Salmond – who was cleared of sexually assaulting nine women while he was Scotland’s first minister – the spokesperson added: “The courts have made it clear that those who complained in relation to allegations of sexual assault must have their identities protected.

“The Scottish Government is not permitted to release information which would breach those court orders and amount to a contempt of court.”