The petitioner looked at official definitions and listings of maladministration to check that ‘lying’ is missing from them and is not clearly implied by some other listed item.
I wrote to the SPSO. In the response, Mr. Jim Martin was quoted as saying (in response to a question from the Local Government and Regeneration Committee) that “we would criticise a body who provided inaccurate or misleading information”, but it was implied elsewhere that they did not always do so. My letter was not fully answered.
My list MSP wrote to the Minister for Parliamentary Business asking for the Government’s view. The response confirmed the petitioner’s knowledge of the present legal position, but did not discuss the realities of complaint handling and the other issues raised in this petition.