THE parliamentary inquiry into Nicola Sturgeon and the handling of the Alex Salmond affair could hang over the First Minister far longer than first thought, it has emerged.
One source told the Herald it might last more than a year, because of a plan to mothball it almost immediately to avoid cutting across a separate, ongoing police probe.
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Only once the police had finished their examination of sexual misconduct allegations against Mr Salmond would the Holyrood inquiry be revived and start its work in earnest.
Such a timetable would cast a long shadow over Ms Sturgeon, her government and the independence movement.
Holyrood’s parties agreed on Tuesday to set up a special committee of MSPs to look at how the government’s probe into Mr Salmond was run, its collapse, and Ms Sturgeon’s contacts with her mentor while he was being investigated.
It is expected to take several weeks just to draw up the remit and decide the membership.
Although the committee’s MSPs will decide how to conduct their hearings, there is a cross-party desire to avoid interfering with the police.
One suggestion is for the Holyrood inquiry to convene only briefly before suspending itself until the police probe runs its course.
The force’s investigation, codenamed Operation Diem, has been running since September and is expected to last several more months, at which point the Crown Office could become involved.
Under the proposal, the Holyrood inquiry would be put on ice until this was over.
Mr Salmond vigorously denies any criminality.
Although Holyrood’s business bureau discussed a time-limited inquiry, it decided it should be open-ended.
One source said the proposal to wait for Police Scotland meant the Holyrood inquiry could in theory last “years” because of the slow nature of police investigations.
“It needs to go where the evidence goes,” said another.
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