Watchdog to examine SNP’S missing Covid Whatsapps

SCOTLAND’S information watchdog has launched an inquiry into the mass destruction of Whatsapp messages from the pandemic by Nicola Sturgeon, other SNP ministers and civil servants.

David Hamilton said evidence disclosed to the UK Covid Inquiry hearings in Edinburgh had raised “significant practice concerns” around the deletion of informal communications.

The Scottish Information Commissioner said his office had launched an “intervention” into the failure of SNP ministers and officials to “retain or even record a complete set of the decisionmaking processes”.

He said the mass deletion, which Ms Sturgeon admitted during her marathon evidence session last week, “had not only deprived the inquiry of information” but also the public.

The move is aimed at improving the Scottish Government’s culture and practices when dealing with Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. However,

Mr Hamilton said he would investigate any potential breaches of FOI laws. It is a criminal offence to destroy or conceal a record with intent to prevent it being disclosed in response to an FOI request.

Ms Sturgeon and John Swinney, her former deputy first minister, are among the senior figures to admit to deleting all their Whatsapp messages from the pandemic period, even though she pledged during an August 2021 news conference that they would be handed over to a future inquiry.

Ms Sturgeon and Mr Swinney argued they were following Scottish Government guidance that advised them to transfer “salient” points from their messages to the official record before destroying them. This gave them discretion over what was retained.

The inquiry was also shown online conversations between senior civil servants and advisors in which they agreed to delete their messages so they were not “discoverable” under FOI.

Humza Yousaf, the First Minister, has ordered an external review into the use of informal messaging.