The mystery of the missing WhatsApps continues. Deputy First Minister Shona Robison took to the floor at Holyrood today to issue an update about the Scottish Government’s interactions with the UK Covid Inquiry. Amid ongoing concern about whether ministers deleted public records, Robison’s contributions don’t offer a whole lot of clarity…
Addressing the Scottish parliament today, Robison said that all requested Scottish Government messages that are still ‘held’ will be shared ‘in full and unredacted’ by 6 November. Any deleted messages ‘will be for individuals to explain to the inquiries any actions they have taken in relation to records retention,’ she continued ominously. But ‘with regards to the Scottish Government’s records management policy she said ‘it is not practical, cost-effective or necessary for any organisation to retain every single exchange’.
A ‘dedicated mobile messaging policy’ was, apparently, only introduced in November 2021 after the height of the pandemic was over. The guidance, Robison says, has ‘always been clear that regardless of the source medium, information relevant to the corporate record must be saved’. ‘Let me be clear,’ the deputy FM continued:
Contrary to some reports, there is not and has not been a requirement for any official, let alone Ministers, to auto-delete messages without ensuring that relevant information from them is transcribed and saved appropriately first.
Well, there appears to be more than a slight discrepancy there between Robison’s statement and what First Minister Humza Yousaf admitted yesterday: that the Scottish Government ‘had a social media messaging policy’ which ‘actually required us to routinely delete WhatsApp messages’. But Yousaf also said that he has ‘kept WhatsApp messages and fully intends to hand them over’, while former first minister Nicola Sturgeon today promises she has ‘nothing to hide’ — yet refuses to say whether she did actually delete her WhatsApp messages during the pandemic. So many questions…
And what about those who deleted messages before November 2021, when the ‘dedicated mobile messaging policy’ was introduced? Would their actions count as being in breach of the records management policy?
So much for all that hot air about being ‘the most accessible government ever’…
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