STV NewsThere were “inadequacies” in the City of Edinburgh council’s handling of complaints against former leader Cammy Day, an investigation has found.
Day stepped down as the leader of the local authority in December 2024 after two years in the position following allegations that he sent messages asking about refugees’ sexual preferences on a dating app.
He resigned following a story in the Sunday Mail and said he would co-operate with a police investigation.
In April, police concluded that there was “no evidence of criminality”.
Following that investigation, the council asked the former information commissioner Kevin Dunion to independently review how the complaints made against Day were handled.
In his report, Mr Dunion was asked to evaluate the way a potential complaint about Day from 2006 was handled, alongside of one made last October, and two made at the end of 2023.
Mr Dunion found no evidence of the potential complaint from 2006 – before Day was a councillor.
However, he concluded that were “some inadequacies” in the handling of the complaint from 2018.
The complaint from 2018 was anonymously sent directly to then council leader, Adam Nols-McVey, claiming that a “senior Labour councillor” had “groomed” a 15-year-old boy.
A social media post on X earlier this year named Day as the alleged “senior Labour councillor” in question.
The report found the complaint from 2018 was apparently forwarded to the council business manager to handle.
Emails relating to the complaint have since been lost.
Mr Dunion said there could be multiple explanations for that, including migration to a new email system, laptop upgrades, or deliberate deletion.
However, he concluded that the loss of related emails was an “unintended and unexpected consequence” of the information not being shared.
Mr Dunion said the seriousness of the claim should have triggered the former council leader to share it with the council’s chief executive and senior monitoring official instead of just the business manager.
More importantly, Mr Dunion said the council still lacks sufficient safeguards to prevent this type of incident in the future.
Regarding the most recent complaints about Day from 2023, which claimed he had sent “unsolicited messages” to Ukrainian refugees, Mr Dunion said the complaints were handled properly and in line with the council’s policies.
He concluded, overall, that complaints were for the most part handled properly and that the policies and procedures in place are broadly effective.
Four months after resigning, Day said he was not interviewed by police and described the situation as a “co-ordinated political attack”.
He previously said he sought legal action and attributed the allegations to SNP figures.
Edinburgh City Council chief executive Paul Lawrence said: “I want to thank Kevin Dunion for leading this sensitive review and for his report, not least given the complexity of the brief and tight timescales.
“I know this must have been challenging and a difficult experience for many people and I particularly want to thank those who came forward to be interviewed or provided information to the review. Your input is very much appreciated.
“Subject to approval by councillors next Thursday, we will bring a further report back to the Policy and Sustainability Committee in August, outlining our proposed actions in response to Mr Dunion’s recommendations.”
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