Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 25 November 2020
I will make two points. The first is that, although the committee has been asking for the legal advice, the Government has been maintaining its position, which has been maintained by all Governments in these islands, that legal professional privilege is an important principle to protect. The Government’s position has been clear that we are not persuaded by the arguments about waiving the legal professional privilege that is clearly stated in the ministerial code, to which members rightly hold ministers on a regular basis.
In relation to the consideration of the material, more material will be made available to the committee, as I confirmed to the convener in a letter yesterday. I gave commitments some time ago that we wanted to issue more material, but that it would have to be agreed, because some of the information is in dispute with the lawyers for the former First Minister. Based on the information that has been cleared for release, I hope to provide as much information as I can to the committee in the coming days.
We need to take the necessary time to consider those issues and to formulate a proper response to the decision that Parliament took a few weeks ago. As Mr Fraser referred to, the Lord Advocate attended a meeting of the committee on 17 November. During the evidence, the Lord Advocate made it clear that complying with the law officer convention and the Government’s assertion of legal professional privilege—which was casually dismissed by Mr Fraser in his comments—would not prevent the Lord Advocate from giving a full account to the committee of the legal position that was taken by the Scottish Government throughout the judicial review. Of course, the Government’s legal position has been set out in the disclosure of all the pleadings that have been submitted to the committee, along with a detailed timeline that explains the changes to the Government’s pleadings, based on the changes to the issues that were raised in the process.