A former Scottish health secretary has used parliamentary privilege to claim that a Westminster civil servant worked to “deliberately and systematically destroy” a clinical waste company that laid off 400 staff before Christmas.
Alex Neil accused Coleen Kaiser Andrews, head of markets and suppliers at the Cabinet Office, of a personal campaign to sabotage Healthcare Environmental Services (HES).
Mr Neil, now a backbench SNP MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, was rebuked by Ken Macintosh, the presiding officer, for using the Scottish parliament’s legal protection against defamation to raise an allegation against an official who could not defend herself in the chamber.
HES, which is based in Shotts, North Lanarkshire, is facing a criminal investigation for allegedly failing to dispose of medical waste, including body parts,…