Nicola Sturgeon has claimed she would risk breaching the law by revealing the outcome of her Government’s probe into bullying claims against an SNP MSP.
The First Minster cited “privacy and data protection” laws as the reason for not answering questions about the complaint against Fergus Ewing
Her response was met with anger by Scottish Labour MSP Anas Sarwar, who accused her of operating a culture of “secrecy and cover up”.
Ewing was reportedly the subject of a bullying complaint by civil servants when he was Sturgeon’s Rural Economy and Tourism Cabinet Secretary.
The allegations, which Ewing denies, were made by three officials and escalated into a formal process in 2020.
The probe was completed last year - but the Government has sparked fury by refusing to comment on the outcome.
Sturgeon told the Record last week that “GDPR privacy issues” prevented her from answering a question about the outcome. Ewing is no longer in Government.
At Holyrood today, Sarwar asked about bullying investigations by the government into former or serving SNP Ministers.
Sturgeon said: “I am not in a position to get into these issues because there are very considerable legal data protection issues that I am bound by.
“Governments have a duty of transparency, but governments also have a duty to abide by the law on privacy and on data protection.
“A complaint by its nature includes personal detail data of both the complainer and the person complained about. This personal information can only be made available outwith the narrow confines of the complaint, if there is a lawful basis within GDPR to do so.”
Sarwar said no one was asking for confidential details, merely the outcome of the Ewing investigation.
Sturgeon said: “I and this government take any complaints about any ministers very seriously. That is evidenced by both the development and the publication of the updated procedure for handling complaints made by civil servants, either about current or about former ministers.
“So this is not a question of any complaints, if they are raised, not being investigated. But that has to be done within the law. I have to abide by the law. I have a duty to uphold the law. And there are laws here on privacy and data protection that apply.
“And if I answer questions on this, I will be at risk of breaching that law.”
Sarwar said afterwards: “After the allegations against Alex Salmond, and then Derek Mackay, and bullying findings against UK Government Ministers, we need to restore trust in politics.
“And that must start with complaints being handled transparently.
“It also matters because it is indicative of a wider culture and the culture of secrecy and cover ups at the heart of this Government.
“Instead, the First Minister has hidden behind GDPR and refused to come clean over the outcome of the investigation into Fergus Ewing.
“The public deserve to know the outcome of this investigation as a matter of transparency.
The Ewing probe was conducted under the Government’s Fairness at Work procedure, rather than under the policy used to investigate sexual harassment allegations against former First Minister Alex Salmond."
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