Anas Sarwar Fergus Ewing Scotland reports record cover Anas Sarwar Fergus Ewing Scotland

Nicola Sturgeon claims she could break the law by answering questions on Fergus Ewing 'bullying' allegation probe

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dailyrecord.co.uk

Nicola Sturgeon has claimed she would risk breaching the law by revealing the outcome of her Government’s probe into bullying claims against an SNP MSP.

The First Minster cited “privacy and data protection” laws as the reason for not answering questions about the complaint against Fergus Ewing Her response was met with anger by Scottish Labour MSP Anas Sarwar, who accused her of operating a culture of “secrecy and cover up”.

Ewing was reportedly the subject of a bullying complaint by civil servants when he was Sturgeon’s Rural Economy and Tourism Cabinet Secretary.The allegations, which Ewing denies, were made by three officials and escalated into a formal process in 2020.The probe was completed last year - but the Government has sparked fury by refusing to comment on the outcome.Sturgeon told the Record last week that “GDPR privacy issues” prevented her from answering a question about the outcome.

Ewing is no longer in Government.At Holyrood today, Sarwar asked about bullying investigations by the government into former or serving SNP Ministers.Sturgeon said: “I am not in a position to get into these issues because there are very considerable legal data protection issues that I am bound by.“Governments have a duty of transparency, but governments also have a duty to abide by the law on privacy and on data protection.“A complaint by its nature includes personal detail data of both the complainer and the person complained about.

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