Sturgeon was 'very good' but lacked detail, says Baillie

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said Nicola Sturgeon put in a “very good performance” at the Holyrood committee into the Government’s unlawful investigation of former first minister Alex Salmond but suggested detail was lacking.

Baillie, a member of the committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “As I expected I thought Nicola Sturgeon put in a very good performance. It was very polished, as we’ve come to expect of her.

“But in the torrent of words that were exchanged over the eight hours I’m not sure that in some areas where we needed quite specific detailed answers that we actually got them.”

Asked to say more about those areas and if she has all the background information she needs, Baillie said: “I mean that genuinely is part of the problem. In my 22 years in Parliament, I have never been so obstructed, unable to do my job, as I have been on this committee.

“And in part that’s down to the Scottish Government. We have consistently asked them for information, which they say they will provide, we get it six months late.

“And in the case of legal advice, it’s taken two parliamentary votes and endless letters to try and get them to actually hand it over, and they only did so at six o’clock before the committee meeting.”

She said not all the legal advice was handed over, meaning that questions about “key bits of the process” still cannot be asked.