On the record

Many years ago my insurer advised me to keep a record of all telephone conversations in case I got sued. I obliged and two things happened. Firstly, productivity fell by 50 per cent because a one-hour conversation took a further hour to transcribe. Secondly, clients no longer phoned me, fearful of subsequently being held liable for any inadvertent comments made.

I mention this in relation to accusations being made about the recording of information by Scottish Ministers during the Covid Inquiry. The Inquiry heard that telephone conversations fall under “recordable information” yet no witness has yet produced a fully transcribed telephone conversation. For the reasons outlined above, I’m not surprised.

One Tory MSP then claimed that in business terms it was “inconceivable” having no minutes for the Scottish Government’s “Gold Command” meetings.

But in 40 years of working in procurement I cannot recall a formal minute being issued when senior management were discussing strategy and decisions relating to bids for multi-million pound contracts. On building contracts informal meetings take place all the time, with key decisions made without a formal minute being issued. Nothing would get built otherwise. Personally, I always issue an email with bullet points the same day to protect myself. Failure to respond means you’ve accepted my record.

Those who know me will be aware that I write copious notes. On a number of occasions I’ve issued these as my record of events in the absence of a formal minute. As a direct consequence of this, three attempts to sue me had to be abandoned because my pursuers admitted to not having read my draft minute which invited them to raise any concerns. It’s knowing what to record when, that’s the key.

Robert Menzies

Falkirk