Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord True on 1 March (HL12487), whether they will now commission a report from the Head of the Civil Service on the conduct of civil servants involved in (1) the preparation for the trial HM Advocate v Salmond, and (2) the alleged collusion in the Scottish Government regarding the bringing of charges relating to that trial.

These remain matters for the Scottish Government. I would refer the noble Lord to the Deputy First Minister’s public statement of 23 March, which sets out that “The Scottish Government will carefully consider the recommendations from the Committee, alongside the other two review reports, in order to put improvements and an implementation plan in place.”

As with civil servants who support HM Government, the Civil Service in Scotland is accountable to Ministers in the Scottish Government and those Ministers are in turn accountable to the Scottish Parliament.