Aberdeen City Council has tonight made public a shock report which blasts the “small scale” investigation the body undertook into the baby ashes scandal.
An inquiry was launched in 2013 after it emerged bodies of babies had been cremated with those of unrelated adults at Hazlehead Crematorium.
The ashes were given back to relatives of the adult, while the parents of infants were told there were no remnants of their loved ones.
Independent investigator, Richard Penn, completed an in-depth probe into the council’s handling of the affair last year – but the findings were not fully released to the public.
Details of the investigation have only tonight been released under orders from the Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC).
The council says it has the blessing of the SIC in blotting out several sections of the report, however.
Mr Penn lambasted council officers for taking the word of crematorium management that babies younger than two do not produce ashes – when they could have found contradictory information by completing a wider investigation encompassing other crematoriums.
And he published an unflattering table comparing how lacking the authority’s response was in contrast with that of the City of Edinburgh Council.
An Aberdeen City Council spokesman stressed that operations at Hazlehead Crematorium had been “transformed” since the scandal erupted.
He said: “Over the past few years operations at the crematorium have been transformed and there is now an open and inclusive ethos where staff are encouraged to contribute and challenge.
“Those improvements do not in any way compensate for the pain suffered by those affected by past practices but are an indication of the comprehensive measures taken to address the issues identified.”