Alex Salmond spent £20,000 keeping secret non-existent EU legal advice He only decided to reimburse the taxpayer after this newspaper tabled a request under the FOI Act in March this year that would have disclosed the purchase. However, he spent nearly seven months trying to keep secret the date of repayment. Drew Smith, Scottish Labour constitution spokesman, said: "It's outrageous that the SNP has used public funds in an attempt to hide the truth ahead of the referendum. They're increasingly fond of using public funds for their own vanity projects, from trips to the golf, tartan trews and now to deceive on the constitution. John Lamont, the Scottish Tory Chief Whip, added: "If they fail to tell voters what their legal basis is for an independent Scotland being part of the EU, it could result in yet another expensive court case." The row originated with a FOI request by Catherine Stihler, a Labour MEP, who asked ministers in 2011 about the legal advice they held on a separate Scotland's EU status. During an interview with the BBC's Andrew Neil in March last year, Mr Salmond appeared to confirm that he had sought advice from his law officers on this issue, saying: "We have, yes, in terms of the debate." But in July 2012 the Scottish Government announced it was appealing a ruling by the FOI commissioner that it disclose whether or not advice had been sought. Ministers used taxpayers" money to take the case to the Court of Session but dropped their action in October that year after admitting the advice did not exist. According to a parliamentary answer published by Ms Sturgeon, the Scottish Government's legal costs totalled £3,960 and law accountant fees were £1,680. In addition, Scottish ministers agreed to pay the Information Commissioner's fees of £13,812.92. Mr Salmond has previously spent more than £103,000 going to the Court of Session twice to prevent this newspaper seeing details of the SNP's local income tax plans. Humza Yousef, the Scottish External Affairs Minister, said the previous Labour and Lib Dem administration took five FOI cases to court at a cost of £30,000. He said the Westminster Government has gone to court and used the ministerial veto to prevent information being released.