Hansard

Presiding Officer, I did not give you prior notice of my intent to speak. In relation to the business programme, I ask for parliamentary time to be scheduled for a Government statement on the continued delay in the release of material connected with the Salmond and Sturgeon inquiry.

Parliament has repeatedly sought clarity from ministers on when that information will be published, yet requests for both a statement and a firm timetable have been refused. Meanwhile, the Scottish Information Commissioner has taken enforcement action after deadlines were missed, and the matter now sits in the courts.

This is not some small procedural issue—it is about transparency and accountability to the Parliament and to the public. Let me be clear that no one is suggesting that the identities of alleged victims and complainers should be put at risk. Court orders protecting individuals must be respected and safeguards against so-called jigsaw identification are essential. However, ministers have said that work to resolve the issue is being carried out at pace. If that is the case, it is simply stating the obvious to say that the Government must know how far through the process it is—or does it mean at a snail’s pace?

There are only a finite number of documents involved. If we are to take what the Government says at face value, work will already have been completed on many of them. It is therefore incumbent on ministers to tell Parliament when publication of the Salmond and Sturgeon files will happen.

There is absolutely no acceptable reason why a firm date cannot now be provided immediately. Continued delay risks giving the impression that process is being used as an excuse rather than its being a necessity, in particular as we approach an election. Taxpayers, whose money has been wasted on this cynical action, deserve full transparency. We are seeing continued concerns about Scottish National Party secrecy and cover-up, and the public are rightly asking how much more public money will be spent before the matter is finally concluded.

The SNP is no stranger to frivolous litigious endeavours. We have already seen enormous legal bills accumulate: £363,000 spent on defending the botched Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill case; £250,000 spent on unsuccessfully testing independence powers at the Supreme Court; £766,000 spent on resisting cases brought by brave campaigners For Women Scotland; £630,773 spent on defending the misconduct investigation into Alex Salmond; and, so far, another £73,024—and counting—spent on attempting to keep the Salmond and Sturgeon files under wraps.

The public interest is clear. Ministers must now provide Parliament with the date for publication, confirm that protections will remain in place and explain how further delay and expense will be avoided. It is for those reasons that I call, again, for parliamentary time to be provided for ministers to make that statement, giving Parliament the clarity that it deserves and the transparency that the public need and deserve.