Scottish justice secretary found to have breached ministerial code

Justice Secretary Angela Constance broke the ministerial code after making controversial comments about a grooming gangs expert in parliament, an investigation has found.

The SNP minister was accused of misrepresenting Prof Alexis Jay's position on public inquiries into child sexual abuse and exploitation.

However, the Scottish government's independent advisers found that the breaches of the ministerial code were inadvertent and "without any deliberation or intention to mislead".

Constance has been given a written reprimand and told to make a statement to parliament to update the official record.

The row dates back to September, when the justice secretary quoted Prof Jay - who is overseeing a review of the evidence on grooming gangs in Scotland - in parliament and told MSPs that the expert did not support further grooming gang inquiries.

However, Prof Jay later contacted the government to clarify that her remarks did not refer to inquiries in Scotland.

The independent investigation identified two breaches of the ministerial code.

The first was that Constance's comments about Prof Jay "had the potential to mislead parliament" and should have been corrected as soon as the expert asked the government to clarify her comments.

However, the advisers found that there was no evidence that Ms Constance "knowingly misled parliament nor was the statement inaccurate or untruthful".

The second breach related to a telephone conservation in which Constance apologised to Prof Jay. The minister had revealed last month that no government officials were on the call.

The advisers described this as an "error of judgement in the moment and not deliberate and in that sense inadvertent".

First Minister John Swinney said he accepted the findings of the investigation and that the recommendations of the investigation would be followed.

Opposition MSPs have criticised Constance for failing to correct the parliamentary record and triggered a vote of no confidence in December.

Constance survived the vote but shortly before Christmas the Scottish government's independent advisers confirmed that they would investigate the minister.

Constance made the comments about Prof Jay when she opposed a Conservative amendment to a victims bill, which called for an inquiry into grooming gangs.

Emails released by the government later showed Prof Jay clarified that she made the comment "in the context of the England and Wales Public Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse," which she chaired.

Prof Jay wrote: "It had nothing to do with [the Conservative] amendment, or the position in Scotland, as could be interpreted from your statement."

She urged the government to clarify her position.

Constance apologised to Prof Jay at a meeting of Holyrood's education committee.

She said she made an initial apology in a "personal" telephone conversation with the academic.

However, the committee heard no government officials were present on the call - sparking further accusations of a ministerial code breach.

After the independent advisers announced their investigation, Constance told BBC Scotland News that the row could have been "handled better" but that she had acted in "good faith".