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The Scottish government has again insisted there were no recorded complaints regarding Alex Salmond before January this year.

Civil servants have been investigating two allegations of sexual harassment, which have been strenuously denied by Mr Salmond.

It follows claims in the Daily Mail newspaper that one of the complaints was first looked into in late 2013.

The paper said it resulted in "no action" being taken against Mr Salmond.

The Scottish government has previously denied that there were any recorded complaints about Mr Salmond's behaviour before January.

Earlier this year it emerged that a senior civil servant had been asked to examine harassment allegations against Mr Salmond dating from his time as first minister.

Mr Salmond has since resigned from the SNP while he challenges the Scottish government's new complaints procedure in the courts, which he has claimed is unjust.

Previous process

In response to the Daily Mail's claims, the Scottish government insisted it had no record of any earlier investigation.

A spokesman said: "The Scottish government received two complaints in January in relation to Alex Salmond. These could not be ignored or swept under the carpet.

"No complaints were raised with the then deputy first minister about Alex Salmond under the previous process and, as we have said, the first [that] the first minister became aware of the fact of an investigation was from Alex Salmond in April 2018.

"We are confident our processes are legally sound and we will vigorously defend our position."

The findings of the Scottish government's investigation into the allegations have been delayed by Mr Salmond's legal challenge.

A spokesman for Mr Salmond said: "We have no comment to make because our petition for judicial review against the permanent secretary is now before the Court of Session and we expect it to be called shortly. We will do our talking in court.

"Our objective is to establish that Scottish government's complaints procedure used against Alex is unlawful."