Top law officer told Swinney of Murrell charge nearly a year ago

First Minister John Swinney was given details of the criminal charge against former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell nearly a year ago, documents reveal.

The files - released by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) - show Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain first wrote to Swinney last March to inform him that Murrell had been charged with embezzling £460,000 from the SNP.

It was previously thought that the government was first told of the sum last month.

Murrell is yet to make a plea on the embezzlement charge. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 25 May.

Bain's letter to the government was included in a list of nearly 30 cases which the lord advocate has updated either the Scottish or UK governments on over the past three decades.

They include updates on the Glasgow Airport terror attack, the death of Sheku Bayoh, the Lockerbie bombing, the deaths of two inmates in Polmont Young Offenders Institute and the offending history of Stephen Gough, known as the naked rambler.

The COPFS said the documents showed that Bain – who has faced calls to resign over a memo she sent to Swinney about Murrell in January – had acted in line with her legal duties.

The lord advocate has a dual role as Scotland's chief prosecutor, as well as acting as the government's principal legal adviser, a role she performs as a cabinet minister.

She was criticised by Tory and Labour MSPs in the Scottish Parliament last week after she was called to explain an email she sent to Swinney on 19 January giving details of the charge against Murrell.

Her email was then passed on to senior civil servants and special advisers.

It was not until almost a month later, on 13 February, that the indictment was reported in the media.

The documents released by the COPFS show that Swinney was first told about the £460,000 figure in March 2025.

Last week Swinney defended Bain's decision to disclose the detail of the charge to him last month. Neither the first minister nor the lord advocate mentioned that she had already informed him 10 months earlier.

The COPFS published the documents after MSPs called for the lord advocate to highlight other instances where law officers had informed the serving first minister about ongoing legal cases.

In a letter to Holyrood's presiding officer, Bain said the value of the alleged financial offence was included on each occasion to provide "factual confirmation of a matter on which there had been substantial publicity and speculation in the media during the police investigation".

She added: "Any suggestion that I have acted inappropriately or have misled parliament in this matter is entirely baseless."

The March 2025 minute also provided confirmation of the conclusion of the police investigation against former first minister Nicola Sturgeon and ex-SNP treasurer Colin Beattie.

Last week Bain told MSPs she had written the January memo to inform Swinney about a major development in the case, to remind ministers not to comment on live proceedings and to reiterate that she was not involved in the prosecution.

She also denied having given the government political advantage.

The COPFS has repeatedly said the lord advocate was not involved in the Murrell case because it concerns politicians.

Bain told parliament that she sent the memo because the indictment could become public at any point after it had been served to Murrell.

However, opposition MSPs noted that after the email had been sent, the COPFS had told journalists that details of the indictment could not be published until a preliminary hearing.

The Conservatives have demanded that the lord advocate's dual role be scrapped, saying it poses a conflict of interest, while Labour have called for an investigation into whether Bain misled parliament.

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay accused the SNP of operating a "two-tier" justice system.

He said: "The lord advocate must return to parliament and give a full statement and straight answers to many outstanding questions.

"And this surely sounds the death knell for the lord advocate's dual role."

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour's deputy leader, Jackie Baillie, said the document release "raised far more questions than it answered".

She said: "The people of Scotland deserve transparency from our government and they need to know that all criminal cases are handled impartially and without political interference."

Murrell, the estranged husband of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, stepped down as SNP chief executive in 2023 after more than two decades in the role.

He was charged with embezzlement in April 2024.

He is accused of embezzling £459,000 between August 2010 and January 2023 and of making illicit purchases of luxury goods, two cars and a motorhome using party funds.