Constance made ‘personal and direct apology’ to grooming gangs expert

Scotland’s Justice Secretary made a “personal and direct apology” to an expert she is accused of misrepresenting in a row which led to a vote of no confidence being brought against her.

While Angela Constance survived that vote in Holyrood on Tuesday, concerns have now been raised that she may have breached the ministerial code with her phone call to apologise to grooming gangs expert Professor Alexis Jay.

Ms Constance said she had made “a personal call to make a very personal apology to Alexis Jay”.

She told MSPs on Holyrood’s Education, Children and Young People Committee on Wednesday she had done so because she was “strongly of the view” that she “owed Professor Jay a professional apology”.

But she said there had been no Government official on the call with her – prompting committee convener Douglas Ross to say this was something he would “deem to be a breach of the ministerial code”.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has already called for Ms Constance to be investigated for a potential breach of the code, accusing her of having “misled” the Scottish Parliament when she quoted Prof Jay and she then “repeatedly refused” to correct the official record afterwards.

With Mr Ross noting the ministerial code sets out that “a Government official should be present for all discussions relating to Government business”, he demanded to know why an official had not been on the call.

Ms Constance said she had written a note of her discussion with the professor afterwards, submitting this to her office.

But Mr Ross said: “Unless I’m reading this wrong, a Government official should be present for all discussions relating to Government business.”

Describing Ms Constance as being a “very experienced parliamentarian and Government minister”, he said she should have been aware “an official should have been on that call”.

The row was sparked when the Justice Secretary quoted Prof Jay in a Holyrood debate in September.

In response to Conservative calls for a Scottish inquiry into grooming gangs to be established, Ms Constance said at that time Prof Jay agreed with her that such a probe was not needed.

Prof Jay however later contacted the Scottish Government to insist her remarks that had been quoted had “nothing to do” with the situation in Scotland, requesting the situation be clarified.

The expert told the committee earlier on Wednesday she had a call from Ms Constance, at the Justice Secretary’s request.

Prof Jay told the MSPs: “It was a couple of weeks ago and she apologised for my name being bandied around in the Parliament.”

She added that in contacting Ms Constance, she had “never sought” an apology – insisting what she wanted was an “accurate record” of her remarks.

These were later clarified in the minutes of a Scottish Government strategic group dealing with child abuse – with the Justice Secretary stressing Prof Jay had been “content” with this.

But pressed on whether she would also seek to correct the official record of Holyrood business – something Ms Constance has not so far done – the Justice Secretary added she would consider this.

She stressed when she originally quoted Prof Jay she had been “making a general debate point around the need to get on with the work”.

Ms Constance added that when MSPs correct the record, it is usually because “a quote was wrong, a word was wrong, names were wrong, figures were wrong”, and she “wasn’t sure how that would do justice to the clarification Professor Jay was seeking”.

The Justice Secretary insisted she would have no concerns about the issue being referred to independent advisers, for them to consider if she breached the ministerial code.

But she told MSPs she would not be referring herself for a possible investigation.

Asked by Mr Ross if she would have “any concerns” if the First Minister asked the independent advisers to consider the matter, or if they themselves decided to launch an investigation, Ms Constance said: “There will be other people who make decisions, whether it is the First Minister or independent advisers.

“I wouldn’t want to say anything or do anything that would seek to influence that one way or the other.”

Mr Ross said afterwards however that Ms Constance’s evidence to the committee had “only confirmed her position as Justice Secretary is untenable”.

The Tory MSP said: “Her private apology to Professor Jay proves that even she knows she was wrong to misrepresent her views.

“But this lying SNP minister also brazenly admitted another breach of the ministerial code by admitting she didn’t have an official in the room while she made that call.

“If Angela Constance is relaxed about an investigation into her conduct, then John Swinney and the independent advisers on the ministerial code should back our calls and launch an investigation immediately.”