Image source, Fraser Bremner/Daily Mail

Conservative MSP Margaret Mitchell asks about the dual role of the Lord Advocate - who is the head of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, as well as a minister in the Scottish government and its principal legal advisor.

Click here to find out more about the Lord Advocate.

Mr Salmond says he thinks there is an argument for separating the government-advising role from the prosecutorial role.

He argues people should not confuse institutional failure with personnel, saying the leadership has serious questions to answer.

When a government behaves unlawfully it is a "huge and heinous thing", Mr Salmond says, and consequences should follow.

Mr Salmond says the Scottish government spent £600,000 defending their illegal policy in the courts before it collapsed in the judicial review.

He says enormous time, effort and public money had been devoted to refusing to give the committee the documentation it required.

The committee has been blocked and tackled at every turn with "calculated and deliberate suppression" of key evidence, he says.

Mr Salmond says his evidence had been published and then "censored" by the intervention of the Crown Office.

"Even today I appear before you under the explicit threat of prosecution, if I reveal evidence for which the committee has asked," he says.

He says the inquiry is neutered, but is "a chance to assert what kind of a country we are trying to create".

Mr Salmond say some have argued that the blurring of the boundaries between party, government and the prosecution mean Scotland is in danger of becoming a failed state.

"I disagree," he says. "The Scottish civil service has not failed, its leadership has failed.

"The Crown Office has not failed, its leadership has failed.

"Scotland has not failed, its leadership has failed."

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Mr Salmond says the committee investigating the government's handling of the complaints against him has been asked to do its job with "both hands tied behind its back and a blindfold on".

He says witness after witness has later "adjusted" evidence which had been given under oath.

"Were it not for the independence of the judiciary, the robust scutiny of the Court of Session and the common sense of jury made up of members of the public, the matters before this committee would never have come to light," Mr Salmond says.

He says the Scottish courts emerge with their reputation enhanced.

"Can those leading the government and the Crown Office say the same?" he asks.

Image source, PA Media

Mr Salmond says the events shine a light on a government whose actions are no longer true to the principals of "openness, accountability and transparency" - the core principals on which the Scottish parliament was founded.

The failures of leadership are "many and obvious," he says.

"And yet not a single person has taken responsibility."

He says there has not been a single resignation, sacking or admonition.

"The government acted illegally but somehow nobody is to blame," he says.

Mr Salmond says he has not done a single TV interview, press interview or statement in the 11 months since he was acquitted at his trail in March last year.

He has turned down hundreds of such offers, he says.

Mr Salmond says he has watched with frustration as the committee has been "systematically deprived of the evidence it has legitimately sought".

He says he is just about the only witness who has been trying to present the committee with evidence rather than withholding it.

Mr Salmond says he watched with astonishment on Wednesday when the first minister used a Covid press briefing to "effectively question the result of a jury", but he said nothing.

"Today, that changes," he said.

He says it has been a "nightmare" and that he has faced accusations which are among the most wounding any person can face.

But he says we cannot move on until the decision-making that is undermining the system of government in Scotland is addressed.

Image source, PA Media

Mr Salmond says the inquiry is about an investigation into the conduct of ministers, the permanent secretary and civil advisers.

He says it also has to shine a light on the actions of the Crown Office and to examine "the unacceptable conduct of those who appear to have no understanding of the importance of separation of party, government and prosecution authorities, indeed of the rule of law itself".

He says: "It was the government who were found to have acted unlawfully, unfairly and tainted by apparent bias."

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The evidence session with Alex Salmond begins as convener Linda Fabiani welcomes the former first minister and outlines how the four-hour session will proceed.

Mr Salmond begins his opening statement to the MSPs by making the oath.

He says the inquiry is not about him, and that he has already established the illegality of the actions of the Scottish government in the Court of Session.

Mr Salmond adds: "I have been acquitted of all charges by a jury in the highest court in the land.

"The remit for this inquiry is about the action of others."

Former First Minister Alex Salmond has arrived at the Scottish Parliament to give evidence to the inquiry into the government's mishandling of sexual harassment complaints about him.

During the four-hour session he will be questioned by MSPs over his claims of a "malicious and convcerted" conspiracy against him.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Glenn Campbell
BBC Scotland Political Editor

It's been more than six years since Alex Salmond stood down as first minister after losing the independence referendum and now he's back at Holyrood, with what looks like a vengeance.

He'll accuse his successor, Nicola Sturgeon, of repeatedly breaking the rules for ministers in her handling of harassment complaints against him.

He'll point the finger at those in the Scottish government and the SNP - both of which he used to lead - that he believes plotted against him.

He'll allege that Scotland's prosecution service has assisted them by improperly withholding information that could back up his conspiracy claims.

This is his opportunity to convince MSPs his allegations have substance and are not the "alternative reality" Ms Sturgeon thinks he has created.

Instead of commanding the main chamber as he did as first minister, today Alex Salmond will appear as a witness before a parliamentary committee.

Given the enormity of his allegations, his four-hour evidence session will be one of the most notable contributions in Holyrood's short history.

Image source, PA Media

Nicola Sturgeon has insisted she has no regrets about ensuring complaints against Alex Salmond were investigated - despite the "difficulties" it has caused.

She was challenged on the issue at First Minister's Questions on Thursday.

Ms Sturgeon said when she had first learned of the allegations against her predecessor she had "declined to intervene", insisting she believed it was "important a process happened".

She added: "For somebody in my position, somebody hearing what my predecessor, close colleague, friend of 30 years was accused of, the easier thing to do perhaps, perhaps the thing that in days gone by would have been done, was to sweep these complaints under the carpet and not to allow them to be properly investigated.

"I opted not to do that. And whatever difficulties have happened since then, whatever pain has been caused to lots of people in this process, I don't regret not sweeping the complaints under the carpet, because that was the right thing to do."

Image source, Getty Images

Alex Salmond has not made any public statement in person since March last year, when he was cleared of sexually assaulting nine women while he was Scotland's first minister.

However, his written submissions to the Holyrood inquiry make a range of accusations about the conduct of the first minister, government officials, the SNP and the prosecution service.

The content of these written submissions has been the cause of several delays to Mr Salmond's appearance before the committee.

He said he would only appear if the submissions were published in full, allowing him to refer to them in his evidence.

Those papers were published on Monday - but some parts were then removed after the Crown Office, Scotland's prosecution service, raised "grave concerns" about a potential contempt of court.

In the published submissions, Mr Salmond wrote that there had been "a deliberate, prolonged, malicious and concerted effort among a range of individuals within the Scottish government and the SNP to damage my reputation, even to the extent of having me imprisoned".

And he claimed there had been a "complete breakdown of the necessary barriers which should exist between government, political party and indeed the prosecution authorities".

Image source, Getty Images

The row began when allegations of sexual harassment - which he strongly denied - were made against Mr Salmond by two female civil servants in 2018.

The complaints were made after Ms Sturgeon asked for new government policies on sexual harassment to be put in place in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Mr Salmond believed the policy was aimed at him.

Mr Salmond and his supporters claim Ms Sturgeon has misled parliament over the government inquiry into the allegations. They have accused officials close to her of conspiring against Mr Salmond. Ms Sturgeon denies these claims.

The Scottish government eventually admitted it had botched its investigation. It had to pay Mr Salmond's legal fees of more than £500,000 after it admitted it had acted unlawfully.

Then, in January 2019, Mr Salmond was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault, including attempted rape.

Mr Salmond was cleared of all 13 charges - all alleged to have happened while he was first minister - after a trial in March last year.

The nine women who made the allegations included an SNP politician, a party worker and several current and former Scottish government civil servants and officials.

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Although it has become known as the Salmond inquiry, the committee is actually investigating the Scottish government's actions.

Its official name is the Scottish Parliament committee on the Scottish government’s handling of harassment complaints.

It was set up after the government admitted its investigation of two harassment complaints against Mr Salmond had been unlawful.

An internal probe had upheld the complaints - which dated back to when he was first minister - but the decision report was torn up after the government conceded in court that the investigation had been "procedurally unfair" and "tainted by apparent bias".

Mr Salmond was awarded more than £500,000 in legal expenses following the judicial review case, and was subsequently acquitted of sexual assault charges in a separate High Court trial.

Image source, Getty Images

Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of Alex Salmond's evidence session in the Scottish Parliament.

After several delays, the former first minister will be questioned by MSPs as part of an inquiry into the Scottish government's mishandling of sexual harassment complaints about him.

The four-hour evidence session, which begins at 12:30, is expected to focus on that botched probe and the accusations which have been made by Mr Salmond, who claims there was a "malicious and concerted" conspiracy against him.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has challenged her predecessor to prove his allegations, saying there is "not a shred of evidence".

Read more here.