The Scottish Information Commissioner “erred in law” when he ordered ministers to disclose material from the so-called Salmond files, Scotland’s highest civil court has ruled.
A panel of three judges at the Court of Session upheld appeals brought by the Scottish Government in the latest stage of the long-running freedom of information battle.
The dispute concerns evidence gathered for James Hamilton’s investigation into whether former first minister Nicola Sturgeon breached the ministerial code over her dealings with Alex Salmond.
Information Commissioner David Hamilton had ruled that ministers had wrongly withheld some of the material and ordered its disclosure.
The Scottish Government appealed, arguing that releasing the information could lead to the identification of women who made complaints against Mr Salmond and potentially breach existing court orders.
The Inner House of the Court of Session has now sided with ministers.
In its judgment, the court said the relevant test was whether publication created a “real or substantial risk” that complainers could be identified.
The commissioner had accepted that disclosure could allow assumptions to be made about the identities of individuals, but argued that those assumptions could not necessarily be confirmed or disproved.
The judges rejected that approach.
They said it was not necessary for information to definitively reveal an identity for a court order to be breached. It was sufficient if publication created a real risk that a complainer could be identified within communities in which they lived or worked.
The ruling said the purpose of the existing court orders was to protect the dignity, privacy and safety of complainers.
It concluded that allowing information to be released which could assist people in making assumptions about their identities was inconsistent with that purpose.
The court said: “For these reasons, we are satisfied that the commissioner erred in law in ordering disclosure of the withheld information.”
The ruling relates to two linked appeals involving Information Commissioner decisions issued in November and December 2025.
The commissioner had been considering FOI requests seeking written evidence submitted to the Hamilton investigation.
Three separate court protections were relevant to the appeals, including orders preventing publication of information which could identify complainers in proceedings involving Mr Salmond.
Former First Minister Alex Salmond was acquitted of all criminal charges against him following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2020.