Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2026 [Draft]
We need to be clear that we are talking about two distinct issues. As I understand it, the commissioner’s comments on further legal action relate to legal advice and not to material that we hold on the Hamilton report.
The commissioner is wholly independent of Government. His budget is rightly set by Parliament, not the Government. He comes to his own views and applies his own judgment, and it is for him to explain his comments. However, on BBC Radio Scotland just three weeks ago, on 25 February, the commissioner said:
“I think the Scottish Government in general is actually very good when it comes to freedom of information.”
Of course, we have published thousands of pages of material on the Hamilton inquiry. That has not been simple or straightforward. It required us to navigate complex legal issues. What we will not do—and what I will never do—is knowingly release information that could compromise the anonymity of women in cases of alleged sexual assault. That would be utterly wrong, and I will not do it.