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The Scottish government will hand over more than 14,000 emails, mainly WhatsApp, to the UK’s Covid investigation, Deputy First Minister Shona Robinson announced.
He also said that Prime Minister Humza Yousaf percentage his messages.
The government has been criticised for failing to hand over all knowledge applicable to Covid research in the UK, and senior officials have been accused of deleting files.
Nicola Sturgeon declined to say whether she had deleted any messages.
Speaking to the Scottish Parliament, the former first minister said she had “nothing to hide”.
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“I didn’t manage the Covid reaction via WhatsApp,” said the former SNP leader, who is said to have deleted messages manually.
“For example, I wasn’t a member of any WhatsApp group. I was monitoring the Covid reaction from my home in St Andrews. “
He added: “In the investigation I will explain in detail how I acted, what I own, what does not belong to me and the reasons for it. “
Opposition MPs accused the ministers of a cover-up.
In a letter to Parliament, Robinson apologised to grieving families for “any lack of clarity” in the evidence provided to the investigations.
He said the Scottish government had won a request in September from the UK’s Covid Inquiry to hand over WhatsApp messages from officials, ministers and former ministers similar to the pandemic.
Ms Robison showed that the Scottish Government had obtained a formal statutory order, under section 21 of the Investigations Act 2005, to disclose the documents, which she claimed were mandatory due to privacy of knowledge concerns.
The deputy prime minister said “all requested messages will be shared in full and redacted” until Monday.
In addition to the “hundreds” of messages already sent, Robison said this would include more than 14,000 messages, most commonly from WhatsApp, from officials, ministers and former ministers.
“It will be up to the Americans what requests they have made in relation to the preservation of records,” he told lawmakers.
He added that Prime Minister Humza Yousaf would hand over unredacted WhatsApp messages to the inquiry in the coming days.
There’s a question Nicola Sturgeon asked several times and didn’t answer: have you deleted WhatsApp messages?
She told reporters that she had to respect the ongoing investigative processes and that she simply couldn’t go into those details.
This is undermined by the fact that his successor, Humza Yousaf, has shown that he has kept everything of his since the time of the pandemic.
Sturgeon is under pressure because she believes all her moves are in line with government policies.
It is the first time the former prime minister has faced the press since her messages were published, but it will not be the last time she will be questioned on this issue.
The lawyer in charge of the investigation in the UK, Jamie Dawson KC, said 70 Scottish government officials, who operate in a total of 137 messaging groups, were questioned about their WhatsApp messages, but that “very few appear to have been retained”, despite the order not to do so. Destroy messages sent last year.
It is not yet clear whether the 14,000 messages cited through Robinson contained knowledge that in the past was supposed to have been permanently deleted and inaccessible to investigation.
Robison said that under the government’s records control policy, data shared on mobile apps such as WhatsApp and applicable to corporate records will have to be subsidized.
He stated that there was not, nor ever was, a desire to sign documents “without advertising value to preserve them in the company’s archives. “
The deputy prime minister added that there has never been a legal responsibility for “any official, let alone ministers,” to automatically delete messages without ensuring that the applicable data about them is first recorded.
He added: “In cases where it appears that messages are unavailable, adding by deletion in accordance with public service policies on control and retention of knowledge, recommendation has been sought as to whether the owners of the device or a third party should retrieve the material.
“We will, of course, continue to cooperate fully with any of the investigations and will share any additional messages, request more documents, or further documents will be requested. “
When asked when the messages were removed and whether key government figures’ knowledge of the pandemic would be included in full, Robinson said he didn’t know because of privacy regulations related to non-public communications.
Scotland’s Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, claimed that “the smell of secrecy emanating from this is overwhelming”, accusing ministers of a “cover-up”.
Scottish Labour Party fitness spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said key fabrics had been “destroyed on a commercial scale”. He said there had been a “deliberate and coordinated concealment of information”.
Sturgeon announced in May 2020 that there would be a Covid investigation in Scotland in addition to the UK investigation. This was demonstrated in August 2021.
The Scottish inquiry issued a “do not destroy” order in early August 2022; it may simply be a crime for witnesses to delete Covid-related messages after that date.
Yousaf told MSPs in June that all documents requested from email apps and emails would be “absolutely” passed in their entirety to Covid investigations.
Senior members of the Scottish Government’s leadership team during the pandemic, including Ms Sturgeon and Mr Sturgeon and Scotland. Swinney, have been accused of deleting messages or employing an auto-delete feature.
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Yousaf, who served as health secretary since May 2021 before becoming prime minister in March 2023, denied deleting files and said he would “fully” comply with any of the investigations.
However, the First Minister later told reporters that there had been a Scottish government policy related to social media posts calling for their removal after 30 days.
This is despite the government’s records control policy stipulating that knowledge is retained for as long as necessary to meet business needs and legal obligations.
The government said the staff intended to transfer data from occasional resources such as WhatsApp to the official registration formula before deleting it.
Swinney declined to verify or deny whether he routinely deleted WhatsApp messages during the pandemic.
The former deputy first minister told BBC Scotland that he “fully and constructively engaged” in the investigation.
National Clinical Director Jason Leitch has been accused of deleting messages every day of the pandemic, while Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Gregor Smith reportedly used an auto-delete feature on WhatsApp messages.
Both have been reached for comment.
WhatsApp announced the arrival of the auto-delete feature in November 2020, 8 months after the pandemic was declared, suggesting that previous messages can be recovered unless manually deleted.