Amnesty International has today expressed its deep concern around the transparency and accountability of the review into Scottish Enterprise's human rights checks, after the Scottish Government announced that the review had been completed.

The review, undertaken in-house by Scottish Enterprise, came after sustained pressure from Amnesty International and others after it was revealed that -- despite Scottish Enterprise awarding grants worth millions of pounds to arms companies linked to states like Israel and Saudi Arabia -- no company had ever failed one of its human rights checks. 

Issuing an update today, the Scottish Government said that the review -- which took place behind-closed-doors -- was complete and that Scottish Enterprise was putting in place some changes to its processes. But with the update light on detail and being published only a day before MSPs break up for summer recess, Amnesty have criticised the lack of transparency around the process, as well as the inability of MSPs to now scrutinise the review's conclusions. 

Responding today, Neil Cowan (Scotland Director at Amnesty International) said:

"The update released by the Scottish Government was not only light on detail, but it was published the day before the Scottish Parliament enters a two-month recess in the knowledge that MSPs will have no opportunity to scrutinise it. 

Amnesty has been deeply concerned from the outset about the lack of transparency and accountability surrounding this review. And the manner in which the review has finally concluded makes clear we were right to be concerned. 

The Scottish public must be assured that this review has not simply swept the issues under the carpet. Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government need to urgently publish their findings and recommendations in full."