The Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish Government’s unlawful investigation of Alex Salmond will publish its findings on Tuesday morning.

The findings are separate from those of James Hamilton QC, who reported on Monday that there had been no breach of the ministerial code by Nicola Sturgeon over her role in the saga.

But the inquiry is expected to conclude that the First Minister misled the Scottish Parliament.

The Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints will formally publish its full report at 8am, more than two years after it was first established.

The cross-party inquiry was set up after a successful judicial review by Mr Salmond resulted in the Scottish Government’s investigation being ruled unlawful and “tainted by apparent bias” in 2019.

Mr Salmond was awarded a maximum payout of £512,250 after the government conceded the case a week before it was due to be heard in court because of prior contact between the investigating officer Judith Mackinnon and two of the women who made complaints.

A Scottish Government policy for handling harassment complaints was drawn up in the wake of the Me Too movement, and was designed to include former ministers in the complaints process for the first time.

It states that the investigating officer “will have had no prior involvement with any aspect of the matter being raised”, something that fatally undermined the Scottish Government’s defence.

Committee members have held 14 public evidence sessions, questioning a range of witnesses about the development of the complaints policy that was used unlawfully, the handling of the allegations, Mr Salmond’s successful judicial review and the ministerial code.

The First Minister was questioned for almost seven hours about her role in the botched investigation, as well as her predecessor Mr Salmond who used his appearance to accuse the First Minister of multiple breaches of the ministerial code and argue there was a “malicious” plot to remove him from public life.

During her virtual appearance, Ms Mackinnon claimed to have always been open about her communication with two women who made complaints although the government’s lawyers reportedly only became aware of it in October 2018, months after Mr Salmond’s legal challenge had begun.

A leak of the report’s findings last week suggested the inquiry concluded that Ms Sturgeon gave an “inaccurate” account of her meetings and phone calls with Mr Salmond about the investigation.

According to Sky News, the leaked report by the Holyrood committee also finds it “hard to believe” Ms Sturgeon’s evidence of when she first heard about concerns relating to the former first minister’s alleged behaviour.

It also indicated a majority of members are “concerned” it took Ms Sturgeon two months to tell the head of Scotland’s civil service she knew about the investigation.

Speaking on Monday afternoon after Mr Hamilton’s report was published, Ms Sturgeon said: “I look forward, if that’s the right expression, to the committee report being published tomorrow and we will look at that in great detail.

“But I cannot escape the conclusion that there are some members of that committee, because their public utterances show this, that decided before a single word of evidence had been taken that I was guilty of something and nothing was going to remove them from that view.”

A motion of no confidence, tabled by the Scottish Conservatives, is due to be debated and voted upon on Tuesday afternoon.

Ms Sturgeon added: “I’m confident that vote will express confidence in me.

“Remember that the Tories said they would have a confidence vote in me before I uttered a single word of evidence before the parliamentary inquiry.

“They have decided on this issue a long time ago this is a political stunt being brought forward by the Tories tomorrow.”