All of Nicola Sturgeon’s WhatsApp messages through the pandemic seem to have been deleted, the UK COVID inquiry has heard.
The listening to, which is at the moment sitting in Edinburgh, additionally heard proof through which prime Scottish authorities advisor Professor Jason Leitch described erasing the messages as a “pre-bed ritual”.
Jamie Dawson KC, counsel to the inquiry, mentioned former first minister Ms Sturgeon appeared to have “retained no messages whatsoever”.
The listening to additionally heard proof that her deputy John Swinney’s WhatsApp messages have been both deleted manually or through the use of the app’s auto-delete operate.
Ms Sturgeon has beforehand insisted she has “nothing to hide” and by no means used the casual messaging to make selections through the pandemic.
She will give proof to the inquiry within the coming weeks.
Mr Dawson highlighted a desk submitted by the Scottish authorities which appeared to substantiate Ms Sturgeon had not retained her WhatsApp messages.
He mentioned: “In the summary table that we see here, we can see that under the box ‘Nicola Sturgeon’ it says that ‘messages were not retained, they were deleted in routine tidying up of inboxes or changes of phones, unable to retrieve messages’.
“What that tends to counsel is that on the time a request was made, Nicola Sturgeon, the previous first minister of Scotland, had retained no messages in any respect in connection together with her administration of the pandemic.”
He requested Lesley Fraser, the director-general company of the Scottish authorities, if that was appropriate.
“That’s what that indicates to me,” she replied.
Ms Fraser additionally confirmed the Scottish authorities had been unable to produce Ms Sturgeon’s messages from its company report.
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Ms Fraser defined that ministers could have managed their messages involving their personal places of work in such a approach with a view to cease the messaging turning into “unmanageable”.
She mentioned some messages have been merely “banter” that didn’t have to be retained, and others could have been misplaced when telephones have been upgraded.
In response to the inquiry proof, a spokesperson for Ms Sturgeon mentioned: “Any messages she had, she handled and dealt with in line with the Scottish government’s policies.
“Nicola has offered numerous written statements to the UK inquiry – totalling tons of of pages – and welcomes the chance to provide oral proof to the inquiry once more this month when she’s going to reply all questions put to her.”
The inquiry was also shown transcripts of a conversation involving national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch and Ken Thomson, the Scottish government’s former director-general of strategy and external affairs.
Mr Thomson warned that the contents of a chat was “FOI-recoverable” and sent an emoji face with a mouth zipped shut.
Professor Leitch responded: “WhatsApp deletion is a pre-bed ritual.”
Scottish Tory chief Douglas Ross mentioned each Ms Sturgeon and Mr Swinney have “huge questions to answer” and claimed their actions could have been unlawful.
He mentioned: “What were they trying to hide? Shamefully and outrageously for families of those who died during the pandemic, we may never know.
“Nicola Sturgeon’s fame, which has been tarnished by a collection of scandals within the final 12 months, now lies in tatters.
“Secrecy and evasion were the hallmarks of her government – and this shameful cover-up, which amounts to a digital torching of vital evidence, is the most scandalous example of it.”
Content Source: information.sky.com