Scottish Government civil servants admit 'error of judgment' in pre-election funding announcement

FoI request reveals civil servants acknowledge “wrong call” in £8m cash announcement before local elections


PA

By Richard Johnstone

06 Jun 2017

Glasgow City Council chambers. Picture credit:  Viv Lynch via Flickr

Civil servants in the Scottish Government have admitted that an £8m funding announcement made ahead of last month’s local elections should not have been released in the purdah period.



On 2 May, Scottish Government housing minister Kevin Stewart announced that £8.35m would be spent to refurbish vacant office space in central Glasgow, two days before the city's local council election on 4 May.

Government officials had denied that publicising the funding deal so close to the vote was a breach of those rules, stating that “these instances represented legitimate government activity, properly considered against the guidance”.

However, the emails, released following a Freedom of Information request from Conservative North East MSP Ross Thomson, show senior figures acknowledged an error.

Lesley Fraser, the director for housing and social justice at the Scottish Government is quoted in an email as sating that this was “a genuine error of judgment about regular announcements that affect communities across Scotland – but clearly the wrong call on this occasion”.

The release was the third of three regeneration announcements this year, there was a pre-existing format and process for this third announcement, she stated. Other considerations that led to the release included that the two previous announcements had attracted little attention but “all colleagues in policy and communication teams now recognise that this was an error of judgement”, the email stated.

Fraser added that these decisions were a judgment call and “it is clear on this occasion the wrong call was made”, and she apologised to senior figures including Scottish Government permanent Leslie Evans.

The email continued: “Both the communications team and policy team were aware of the guidance and raised it in the email exchanges they had. With hindsight specific question should have been asked about who had been consulted (senior management, cabinet secretariat, etc) and if there was any precedent for such a geographically specific announcement to be made at a politically sensitive time.

“There was no pressing time factor behind making the announcement at this time. All those in the policy and communications teams involved have been spoken to and understand why their judgement was wrong in this instance. They will all be coached further in gaining a full understanding of the pre-election guidance.”

Thomson called for a full investigation, given that the funding concerned Glasgow City Council, which was the Scottish National Party’s primary target in the election. The party subsequently took control of the council as a minority administration from the Labour party.

Responding to the FoI release, a spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “As the permanent secretary has already made clear, following an inquiry into the funding announcement, there is no evidence to suggest any breach of pre-election guidance.

“Our election guidance states that where there is any doubt about the application of the guidance, the matter should be referred to senior staff for consideration. No such upward referral took place on this occasion, which was an error of judgement. This was a lapse in the internal handling but not a breach of the rules.”

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