Justice secretary found to have breached ministerial code

"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"."

An independent investigation found Justice Secretary Angela Constance breached the ministerial code after making parliamentary comments about Prof Alexis Jay that misrepresented the expert's position on public inquiries into child sexual abuse and exploitation. The advisers concluded the breaches were inadvertent and without intention to mislead, but issued a written reprimand and required Constance to make a parliamentary statement to correct the record. The inquiry identified two breaches: comments that had the potential to mislead and should have been corrected when Prof Jay sought clarification, and an error of judgement during a telephone apology when no government officials were on the call. First Minister John Swinney accepted the findings and agreed to follow recommendations.

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