A key aide to Nicola Sturgeon was told of allegations about Alex Salmond’s conduct years before the first minister said she found out about any concerns.
Lisa Bird, the first minister’s former principal private secretary, was contacted by a female civil servant about two years before the woman went on to officially complain about Mr Salmond in 2017.
The woman, known as Ms B to protect her identity, approached Ms Bird after becoming “incredibly hurt and upset” at remarks made during equalities training being run by the Scottish Government.
Her approach to one of the most senior members of Ms Sturgeon’s civil service team is revealed in the book, Break-Up: How Alex Salmond And Nicola Sturgeon Went To War, by Courier editor David Clegg and Kieran Andrews of The Times, which is published on Tuesday.
The revelation means that both the women who would initially complain about Mr Salmond had earlier contact with Ms Sturgeon’s close aides.
It previously emerged that John Somers, who was a successor of Ms Bird in the role of principal private secretary to the first minister, had been contacted in November 2017 by the other woman, known as Ms A.
“Definitively and categorically”
While giving evidence to the Holyrood committee inquiry into the botched government investigation, Mr Somers “definitively and categorically” denied telling the first minister or other senior officials about what was said.
On November 22, 2017, one day after the second meeting with Ms A, Mr Somers forwarded a letter from Ms Sturgeon to Scotland’s most senior civil servant, Leslie Evans, asking the permanent secretary to confirm that the new harassment policy being drawn up included consideration of complaints made against former ministers.
Ms Sturgeon has insisted she found out about the allegations against Mr Salmond in April 2018.
2018 investigation
The earlier contact between Ms B and Ms Bird was noted in evidence submitted to Ms Evans as part of the permanent secretary’s 2018 investigation into allegations against Mr Salmond.
The inquiry was later ruled unlawful, unfair and tainted by apparent bias by the Court of Session.
Separately, Mr Salmond was cleared of 13 charges of sexual assault following a two-week trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
The contact with Ms Bird followed training in which there had been discussions about what officials should do if they witnessed inappropriate behaviour in the workplace.
Ms B had by that point raised multiple concerns about Mr Salmond that were not acted upon.
“Incredibly hurt and upset”
The book says: “Given her previous experiences, Ms B was left ‘incredibly hurt and upset’ by the suggestion that staff should report instances of misconduct if it was to be properly tackled.
“She asked to speak to Lisa Bird, the principal private secretary of the new first minister, Nicola Sturgeon. ‘I told her that bullying and sexual harassment had taken place under FFM (which may have explained some of the employee survey results),’ she said.
“‘I explained that I wanted procedures put in place to ensure that staff (and particularly young staff ) were not ever placed in the same situation again. I explained that being alone, in hotel rooms, cars etc., often after ministers had been drinking, was unavoidable but that it was the responsibility of the organisation to make sure this happened as safely as possible.’
“She asked for definitive action to help in the event of similar situations arising for staff in those types of jobs. It is unclear what action, if any, Bird took after this meeting.”
Separately, Joe Griffin, who was Mr Salmond’s principal private secretary, told the court during Mr Salmond’s trial that in April 2014 he informed David Wilson, then director of communities and ministerial support for the Scottish Government, about concerns that had been raised about Mr Salmond by civil servants.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The Scottish Government’s position was set out extensively during the investigations that were concluded in March.
“The first minister, the lord advocate, and SG officials provided more than 30 hours of detailed evidence under oath to the parliamentary inquiry and the Scottish Government provided around 2,100 pages of relevant material, all of which had been considered carefully for legal issues and to avoid the risk of jigsaw identification.
“The Scottish Government published its response to the three reports responding to the findings of the review led by Laura Dunlop QC, the harassment committee’s report and James Hamilton’s independent investigation on 21 June.
“Our own internal lessons have looked at the broad range of initiatives on culture and behaviours that exist within the SG, and we proactively published those lessons alongside the committee, Dunlop and Hamilton findings.”