Legal advice to be given to Parliament

The key legal advice that underpinned the Scottish Government’s defence of the Judicial Review taken by Alex Salmond will be released tomorrow.

The decision by Deputy First Minister John Swinney has received the prior agreement of the Law Officers in line with paragraph 2.40 of the Scottish Ministerial Code.

Ahead of release, under the General Data Protection Regulation, legal notifications to individuals impacted are required. These are expected to be complete and, subject to them, the Parliament will receive the material immediately thereafter.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said:

“In normal circumstances, government legal advice is not released. Indeed, such is the importance of being able to get frank, private advice, it is almost unheard of for the legal advice to be released.

“But, we have to acknowledge that the issues at stake now are not normal. The very integrity of the legal system is being questioned.

“Serious allegations have been made. This material allows people to confirm that these allegations are false.

“We have already shared in private with the Scottish Parliament’s committee on these issues the substance of the advice.

“Now, we recognise that in order to counter to the false claims being made by some, we must go further. Subject to the mandatory legal checks and processes, we will release the key legal advice.”