Scottish government accused of withholding Covid WhatsApps

The Scottish government has been accused of not handing over WhatsApp messages to the UK Covid Inquiry.

Jamie Dawson KC, the counsel to the inquiry, also said it was "surprising" that so many messages from politicians and officials had been deleted.

First Minister Humza Yousaf said he took Mr Dawson's comments "very seriously" and would investigate.

He also pledged that "all relevant information" of any type will be handed over.

Mr Yousaf, who became health secretary in 2021 while pandemic restrictions were still in place, said his statement to the inquiry was over 100 pages long.

Speaking at a session of the inquiry in London, Mr Dawson said witness statements from key decisions makers suggested that informal communications such as WhatsApp, texts, Microsoft Teams and Signal were used to discuss the Scottish government's Covid response during the pandemic.

It has now emerged that there were at least 137 message groups that were being used, he added.

The inquiry therefore asked 70 individuals for their messages, as well as information on what groups they were members of and if such groups still existed or not and why some messages were deleted.

Mr Dawson said: "A clear theme of the overall response received from and via the Scottish government is that although such messaging systems were used in the pandemic response, including by some key decision makers and others, generally very few messages appear to have been retained.

"This is surprising, in particular, in light of the apparent availability of such messages in high volumes within the UK government."

Humza Yousaf may have renewed a pledge to handover "all relevant information" to the official pandemic inquiries.

But it is far from clear that either the UK or Scottish investigations will get everything they want from the Scottish government.

Why not? Because the UK inquiry has already established that while informal messaging was used by some of those handling the Scottish response to Covid-19, "generally very few messages appear to have been retained".

While the Scottish government insists it does not operate a culture of making decisions via WhatsApp, the inquiry teams would like to be in a position to judge for themselves.

In an effort to preserve evidence, the Scottish inquiry issued a "do not destroy" order at the start of August 2022 and it could be an offence for witnesses to have deleted Covid-related messages after that date.

It is less clear what, if anything, could be done about anyone who might have operated a policy of delete-as-you-go throughout the pandemic.

Mr Dawson also said that so far only one individual has voluntarily provided access to "her" messages, but even those were limited without explanation to a five month period.

He added that "very considerable efforts" had been made by inquiry officials to try to get access to all of the information it needed but that "the detail required to understand the full picture has not yet been forthcoming".

Mr Dawson said: "As a result the inquiry is currently considering what steps to take next."

The UK Covid Inquiry is investigating the UK's response to and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a Scottish inquiry also now under way that is specifically looking at decisions taken by the Scottish government.

The issue was raised during First Minister's Questions by Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who asked Mr Yousaf why the inquiry had not received the information it had requested.

He said: "Refusing to hand over this information would not only be an insult to grieving families it would not only be a shocking display of secrecy it would potentially break the law."

Mr Yousaf said it is not his government that has broken the law over Covid and any concerns raised by bereaved families will be "fully investigated".

Responding to the claims, he said: "Any potentially relevant information that we hold, be it in WhatsApp, be it in email, be it in any correspondence - we will hand over and have handed over."

The first minister said there was a process for handing over information which he would "fully cooperate with".

Speaking to reporters after the session, Mr Yousaf repeated that the concerns raised by Mr Dawson were a "serious matter" and would be investigated.

He added that the Scottish government did not "routinely conduct parliamentary business through WhatsApp" and said it would continue to co-operate with both the Scottish and UK Covid inquiries.

The UK inquiry has already heard from a number of people involved in Scotland's response to the pandemic - including former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

The UK government was taken to court after it refused to hand over former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's messages to the court, stating the messages were irrelevant.

However, the High Court ruled against the government stating it was up to the inquiry chair, Baroness Hallett to decide whether the material was relevant or not.