Angela Constance apologises to grooming gangs expert as further conduct questions raised
Angela Constance apologised to Prof Alexis Jay after accusations she misrepresented her views but a committee appearance has raised further questions
Angela Constance admitted apologising to a grooming gangs expert after accusations she misrepresented her views.
However, an appearance before a Holyrood committee has raised further questions about the minister’s conduct and fresh calls for her to resign.
The justice secretary was grilled by MSPs over her failure to correct the parliamentary record on comments she made regarding Professor Alexis Jay.
Ms Constance said she believed she could not do “justice” to the clarification.
She was also questioned about a private phone call to made on November 27 to Prof Jay mentioned by the child abuse expert in her evidence to the education committee.
The academic said the call had been “a brief call scheduled for 15 minutes but it didn’t last that long”.
The call occurred in December with no civil servant present, which could constitute a breach of the ministerial code.
Asked by the committee whether the call could have been a breach of the code, Ms Constance said she did not believe so.
Referring to the call as a “personal apology”, she said she had written up a note of the conversation and passed it on to her office.
“I'm not aware of ministers being prohibited from making personal calls and it will of course as ever be for others to judge and make any judgments about my actions or behaviour or comments,” she said.
The committee evidence was called in relation to a row over comments made by Ms Constance in September when she opposed a Tory amendment to a victims bill calling for the government to set up a grooming gangs inquiry.
Ms Constance referenced Prof Jay, who she said "did not support further inquiries" into child sexual abuse and exploitation.
However, emails later published by the government showed Prof Jay wanted it to be clarified that she made such a statement "in the context of the England and Wales Public Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse, which I chaired”.
The Scottish Government has since announced there is to be a national review of the evidence on the operation of grooming gangs in Scotland.
It will be carried out by four independent inspectorates, and overseen by an expert panel led by Prof Jay.
Prof Jay, who chaired the UK-wide child sexual abuse inquiry, confirmed she had not be contacted by ministers before being quoted in the chamber.
During the committee hearing on Wednesday morning, Prof Jay said she had been offered a private letter from Ms Constance.
It was also suggested a clarification could be added to the minutes of the National Strategic Group on Child Sexual Abuse.
Douglas Ross, the committee convenor, asked her whether she would welcome a correction to the Official Report.
She replied: “Yes, I would.”
The former social worker also said she had faced pressure from journalists asking to have sight of correspondence between herself and the minister, adding: “I had thought the recipients of the communication would have done so just as part of the process.
"I had no wish myself to escalate the matter any further or indeed to make it adversarial with ministers.”
Speaking after the session, Mr Ross called again for Ms Constance to resign or be sacked.
He said: “Angela Constance’s committee performance has only confirmed her position as justice secretary is untenable.
“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.
“Grooming gangs victims deserve better than an SNP justice secretary who has betrayed their trust and that they no longer have faith in.”
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