Release the Salmond Files: How SNP wastes millions on botched legal cases and keeping secrets
If the SNP spent less money on lawyers, the NHS might be able to afford to replace ageing equipment
For more than a decade, Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon were the most powerful duo in Scottish politics. For much of that time, they worked together to operate the levers of state.
Then Salmond was accused of harassment and their alliance fell apart. Whilst he was found not guilty by the courts, the preceding actions of the Scottish Government raised serious questions about some of the most powerful figures in Scottish politics and whether the failure to follow correct processes let down women working in the Scottish Government.
In 2021, the independent adviser James Hamilton cleared Sturgeon, then First Minister, of breaching the Ministerial Code, but interestingly he recommended that special advisers, in this case the Chief of Staff, should also be bound by some of the provisions of the code. This recommendation has not been implemented by the SNP and documents relating to the Salmond investigation have been kept secret.
Covering up SNP’s blushes
Last week, another SNP First Minister, John Swinney, said he would defy the Information Commissioner and continue to keep the papers secret. The Information Commissioner has warned that he will take legal action, that the Scottish Government has limited prospects of success and risks wasting even more taxpayers’ money.
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Swinney is putting party before country, that the First Minister’s priority is about covering up SNP embarrassment and hiding their secrets. But it’s not just about this case.
READ MORE: SNP ministers warned they face contempt of court over failure to release secret Sturgeon files
The SNP has spent millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money fighting unnecessary legal battles.
As well as the Salmond Files, this includes £363,000 in legal costs for the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, more than a quarter of a million on the independence referendum case, nearly half a million on the failed Named Person scheme and up to £774,000 in the For Women Scotland cases. And there is more cost to come as the SNP fight to keep trans prisoners in women’s prisons.
NHS needs new equipment
The SNP’s determination to avoid transparency at all costs is doubly frustrating when that money could be put to good use elsewhere. Earlier this year, I heard from radiographers about the struggles they have to perform the scans crucial to diagnosing cancer.
Not only are there not enough radiographers, but around a third of Scotland’s X-ray machines, CT and MRI scanners are more than a decade old, meaning they are slower to operate and more likely to break down.
Imagine the difference to real patients’ lives if the SNP government had spent the money on new scanners and training up radiographers.
Instead, the only people benefiting from that money are lawyers – and the SNP’s spin doctors who manage to save their bosses’ blushes for another week. That’s why Scottish Labour is calling on Swinney to stop wasting taxpayers’ cash and release the Salmond Files.
Scotland deserves better than a government that uses the courts to hide its failures and erodes public trust in the institutions of devolution.
A Scottish Labour government would publish the Salmond Files and ensure we are held accountable for delivering on our promises. Faster NHS treatment. Better schools. Safer streets. And no more secrets.
Jackie Baillie is MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and her party’s spokesperson for health
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