No 'covert devices' in Holyrood employment disputes say parliament bosses

A letter sent to Dame Jackie Baillie from Presiding Officer Alison Johnston and chief executive David McGill has said the parliament was satisfied it had robust security controls.

However it did add there was little the parliament can do “to combat scenarios such as the recording on a mobile phone of private conversations without consent and such recording can regrettably happen anywhere."

The response comes after the Scottish Labour deputy leader called for Holyrood's presiding officer to investigate allegations a former SNP staff member bugged the office of the MSP he worked for.

That claim was revealed yesterday as Holyrood broke up for Christmas recess. Today it was reported a further two SNP MSPs had claimed to have been similarly targetted in the last few years by staff members.

However Ms Johnstone's letter details just two historic cases.

She wrote that the parliament was "aware of an historic case where a Member contacted Parliament officials regarding an employment dispute in a local constituency office. In line with our procedures, this matter was investigated by an independent external advisory service and a report was provided to the Member to deal with.   

"We are not aware that there was any criminality involved in this case and the issue was dealt with as a localised employment dispute by the Member.   

"A second historic matter was brought to our attention by another Member concerning a different member of staff.  They chose not to take further action as the employment relationship had already ended.

"While the detail of these employment matters are confidential, we are assured that no covert bugging devices were involved.  

"Beyond these two historic cases, we have no information of any other allegations of this nature at local offices or indeed at Holyrood."

Reports emerged on Thursday that the staff member, who went on to work for an MP and remains an office bearer in a local party association, admitted placing recording devices in the office of his female MSP employer.

The matter had been reported to the presiding officer, but was outside the powers of the Scottish Parliament, because of MSPs' staff being employed directly by elected members.

But Dame Jackie urged the presiding officer to step in following the "deeply alarming reports".

"At a minimum, there has been a shocking violation of trust and an unacceptable breach of standards," she said in a letter on Friday.

A spokesperson for the SNP rejected any allegations that the party or any of its leaders were aware of the issue, while also supporting calls for a Holyrood investigation.