in a highly significant finding the
first minister of scotland nicola
sturgeon
has been cleared by an independent
inquiry of breaching the ministerial
code
her supporters say that the outcome
which comes after weeks of mounting
pressure on the first minister
should end the calls for her to resign
the inquiry led by the prominent lawyer
james hamilton
examined claims that miss sturgeon
deliberately misled parliament
following allegations of sexual
harassment made against the former first
minister
alex salmond a separate report by a
committee of msps is expected to be
published
tomorrow morning our scotland editor
sarah smith has the latest
nicholas sturgeon knew her job could
depend on this report
she herself asked james hamilton to
investigate her actions
his verdict on all four counts she did
not preach the ministerial code
i have been very clear in my own mind
that i acted appropriately
and did not reach the ministerial code
but that while that might be
necessary is not sufficient it's
important to the scottish people that
they have independent
verification and adjudication of that
and that of course is what they now have
the first big question what did she know
and when on the 2nd
of april he informed me about the
complaints against him
nicholas sturgeon originally told
parliament the first she knew of
complaints against alex salmond was on
the 2nd of april when he told her about
it in a meeting at her home
she later had to admit she'd forgotten
about a meeting on the 29th of march
with simon's former chief of staff
in which he says the complaints were
discussed james hamilton said
this resulted in an incomplete narrative
of events
but he accepted this omission was the
result of a genuine failure of
recollection and was not
deliberate did nicola sturgeon break the
rules by not recording the meetings she
had with mr salmon to discuss the
complaints against him
the report states it would have been
impossible to record such meetings
or discussions without a risk of
prejudicing the proceedings
or interfering with their
confidentiality
alex sam and asked nicholas sturgeon to
intervene in the sexual harassment
investigation
as he believed the government was acting
unlawfully and it was her duty to stop a
flawed process
she refused to intervene james hamilton
has concluded
i do not accept that the first
minister's decision to follow the terms
of the procedure
amounted to a breach of the ministerial
code
when alex simmons successfully
challenged in court the way the scottish
government investigated the complaints
against him
he was awarded over half a million
pounds he insists
nicholas sturgeon's government should
have conceded the case earlier to save
public money
james hamilton says he has found no
evidence whatsoever that the first
minister acted improperly or in breach
of the ministerial code with respect to
mr salmon's petition
the hamilton inquiry hasn't looked at a
number of key areas
it further potential breaches of the
ministerial code
including how nicola sturgeon's
government so badly let down women at
the heart of this scottish conservatives
believe
nicolas sturgeon has reached the
ministerial court she has not been
truthful
with parliament or the people of
scotland and she cannot continue as
first minister
for months nicolas sturgeon has faced
accusations of lying and calls for her
resignation
she's always maintained she was telling
the truth today's verdict that she did
not break any ministerial rules will
allow her to say she's been vindicated
let's go live to edinburgh and uh
sarah's there for us now well
nicholas sturgeon supporters are very
clear they think that
she's now basically past the worst and
possibly that she should face
no other cause to resign what's your
reading of it
well that's not likely to be the case i
mean there are a couple of lines in this
report which will make
uncomfortable reading for nicholas
sturgeon james hamilton says
that her explanation for why she didn't
recall that meeting on the 29th of march
will be greeted by suspicion and even
skepticism by some
and in another part of the report he
says specifically it's up to the
scottish parliament to decide whether or
not they were in fact
misled now in the scottish parliament
tomorrow there will be a vote of no
confidence in nicholas thurgy and one
that it seems she is very likely to
survive
but we're also going to see the
publication of another report tomorrow
this one from the msps who sit on the
holy route harassment committee
and we know from leaks of their report
that they are going to conclude
that she was inaccurate in some of the
evidence that she gave
to them so whilst nicola sturgeon can
say that she has been cleared by an
independent inquiry her opponents are
unlikely to accept that
as the last word on this not least
because we've got an election coming up
in scotland in just over six weeks time
sarah many thanks again sarah smith our
scotland editor there
at the scottish parliament and just a
quick reminder to find out
more about the story the background to
the story analysis
by sarah and colleagues go to bbc dot co
dot uk
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