Scottish government recommended deleting WhatsApps during pandemic

Civil servants and ministers including Nicola Sturgeon deleted crucial messages during the pandemic following official guidance, it was confirmed today.

Guidance shown to the UK Covid inquiry in Edinburgh shows official Scottish guidance advising that WhatsApps should be “deleted” amid claims of a “culture” of removing messages from group chats.

“Messages are subject to freedom of information. Messages should be transitory and not used as the official record. Messages should be deleted as soon as they are no longer needed,” the guidance read.

Asked whether this guidance applied to ministers, Lesley Fraser, the director general corporate of the Scottish government, said: “Ministers have a different set of responsibilities about how they work with their private offices.”

However, multiple ministers have deleted their WhatsApp messages from this time, including Sturgeon.

Evidence shown to the inquiry shows that Sturgeon’s messages “were deleted in routine tidying up of inboxes” or that “changes of phones” meant they were “unable to retrieve messages”.

The former first minister has previously refused to confirm or deny that her messages were missing.

A WhatsApp group chat including senior civil servants also included advice to remove messages, the inquiry heard today.

A message from Ken Thomson, the director general for strategy and external affairs, advised others to “delete this thread”. Subsequent messages were missing.

Thomson, who also gave evidence on Friday, defended his comments, claiming it was an “informal group”.

Another WhatsApp chat shows Thomson saying: “Just to remind you (seriously), this is discoverable under FOl. Know where the ‘clear chat’ button is.”

Questioned by counsel to the inquiry, Thomson denied that there was “a culture amongst people who are prominent advisors or decision makers in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic in Scotland to delete their messages”.

A software update to phones and the changing of mobile devices during the pandemic also resulted in the deletion of messages from three witnesses who were to be called to speak.

Fraser, in charge of managing the Scottish government’s retention of documents, said retaining information was “fundamental”.

“When government decisions are taken, it's important that the people are able to understand how, when, why, and by whom those decisions were taken,” she said.

Sturgeon is one of a number of senior politicians whose WhatsApps have now been confirmed as deleted, wiped or lost. Rishi Sunak told the Covid inquiry in December that changing his phone had resulted in the deletion of messages, while Boris Johnson’s phone from the first year of the pandemic is currently inaccessible.

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