29 January Court of Session hearing - matters under consideration

29 January 2026

The Scottish Information Commissioner will today [29 January] attend a Court of Session hearing arising from a request for information which relates to James Hamilton’s Inquiry into the conduct of former first Minister Nicola Sturgeon under the Ministerial Code. 

Given that the Commissioner is currently investigating several cases relating to Mr Hamilton’s Inquiry, it may be helpful to provide some detail on the case which will be under consideration today. 

This case relates to an appeal by the Scottish Government against Decision 065/2025, issued on 18 March 2025. In Decision 065/2025, the Commissioner considered a request to the Scottish Government for all communications relating to an earlier appeal to the Court of Session. This earlier appeal related to Commissioner’s Decision 004/2023, in which the Commissioner found that information relating to Mr Hamilton’s Inquiry was held by the Scottish Government. The Court’s ruling on this case found in favour of the Commissioner. 

In the case under consideration tomorrow - Decision 065/2025 - the Commissioner required that the Scottish Government disclose some communications relating to the earlier appeal, while also requiring that further searches be carried out to identify relevant additional information. 

This court hearing therefore relates to the Commissioner’s decision on communications relating to the appeal of Decision 004/2023.

The court hearing will be livestreamed from 10:30am at https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/livestream/ 

It is important to note that tomorrow’s hearing will not consider requests for the written evidence supplied to James Hamilton as part of his inquiry (addressed in Decision 279/2025 and Decision 315/2025), nor does it relate to the Commissioner’s recent referral of Decision 281/2025 to the Court of Session following the Scottish Government’s recent non-compliance with the timescales set out in that Decision. 

While each of these cases have been referred to the Court, the matters they raise will be dealt with separately by the Court at a later time.