SNP minister admits never meeting Historic Environment Scotland board despite 'magnitude' of problems

The SNP Cabinet minister made the statement as he appeared in front of Holyrood’s culture committee on Thursday morning for questioning about a litany of recent scandals involving the heritage quango.

Mr Robertson described the problems at HES as of a “different magnitude” to any other organisations. He made the comment when asked what lessons the Scottish Government had learned from the chaos at the organisation.

Mr Robertson said it "will become absolutely clear that we are talking about problems of a different magnitude compared to any other organisations”, in relation to human resources issues at HES.

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The culture secretary’s comments relate to a slew of issues at HES revealed in recent weeks, including a senior manager accused of twerking in front of TV star Martin Compston at a corporate event in Edinburgh Castle, which the heritage body manages.

There have also been reports of senior staff using Edinburgh Castle’s restaurant for discounted or free meals, issues of racism and an allegation of sexual harassment.

HES chief executive Katerina Brown had been missing from her post since around April and was recently returned to HES to sign off the annual accounts, while other staff members have been suspended over allegations relating to behaviour.

Mr Robertson said he had discussed the issues with colleagues in the Government, who said they were of a different scale to anything experienced previously.

"I am not aware of this range of issues occurring in any other part of a non departmental public bodies,” he told committee members. “I've spoken with ministerial colleagues in the Scottish Government to say ‘is anybody aware of these sort of developments at this scale, with this range and the potential reasons why?’

“And nobody has any memory of there being such an example. So, we will do everything that we can to deal with the matter now, but we will also learn any lessons to make sure that it doesn't happen in future.”

Mr Robertson was questioned by Scottish Conservative MSP Stephen Kerr and Mr Kerr’s colleague Jamie Halcro Johnston over his failure to meet the board of HES or previous chair Hugh Hall over the past four-and-a-half years.

"There are no records of any formal meetings between you and the chairman of for the four-and-a-half years that you have been the Cabinet secretary,” Mr Kerr said to the committee.

“And I would consider that given the state of HES, particularly in the last 18 months or so to be, frankly, a dereliction of duty on your part as an accountable, member of the Scottish Government for this very important body.”

Mr Robertson said he met Dr Hall at an event in Falkirk, but Mr Kerr dismissed this argument, saying that meeting did not count.

The culture secretary said he had met Ms Brown and had instructed civil servants to meet regularly with the board when he became aware of problems in the organisation.

"There's a long list of where my director general and other senior officials in the Scottish Government have met with the senior management of Historic Environment Scotland," he said.

"I have outlined to the committee at great length the interactions that I have had with the chief executive ... at the regular meetings that have taken place with my senior officials, attending every single board meeting since it became apparent that there's a problem at Historic Environment.”

Following the committee, Mr Kerr said viewers would be “astonished” by Mr Robertson’s “arrogant refusal” to apologise for having never attended a board meeting at HES. He accused the Cabinet secretary of only “arm’s-length supervision” of the organisation.

“He also admitted he had never had a formal meeting with the previous chairman,” Mr Kerr said. “Instead, he congratulated himself on having instructed officials to go – and even then only after the organisation was clearly in meltdown.

“HES receives more than £70 million in taxpayers’ money every year and, as culture secretary, the buck stops with Angus Robertson.”