caltonjock

Special Advisers are excluded from the line management structure of the civil service

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 and the Ministerial Code, dictates that all appointments of special advisers in the Scottish Government are to be made by the First Minister who is personally responsible for the management, welfare and conduct of special advisers, including discipline.

20 & 21 November 2017: John Somers, Principal Private Secretary, to the First Minister met privately with Ms “A”, at her request, in the First Minster’s office at which time she told him that she was not registering a formal complaint about Alex Salmond and said that she wished only to be permitted a personal meeting with Nicola Sturgeon.

Ms “A” was denied access to the First Minister by Somers and was instead subjected to intense pressure from senior civil service managers and other senior political and legal persons to register a complaint against Alex Salmond, with an assurance that it would be resolved to her satisfaction through use of “newly drafted” all-encompassing procedures, which she would have a hand in compiling. In this regard she placed her trust in and was used by the Scottish government as a sacrificial lamb in a political vendetta against Alex Salmond.

The foregoing reveals the duplicity of the Scottish Government’s assertions that it was only interested in the welfare of Ms “A”. If she was a civil servant then the actions taken may have been appropriate, but inexcusably inappropriate if she was a “Special Adviser”. Her line manager was Nicola Sturgeon!!!