Erasing WhatsApps was described as a "pre-bed ritual" by a top Scottish Government advisor, according to evidence presented to the UK Covid inquiry.

The inquiry was shown transcripts of a conversation between officials in May 2021, when there were concerns about the rapid spread of the new Delta variant in Glasgow.

Professor Jason Leitch - the Scottish Government's national clinical director and a high-profile figure during the pandemic - was seen responding to a warning that the contents of the channel were "FOI recoverable" by stating: "WhatsApp deletion is a pre-bed ritual".

It came as the inquiry was told that former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon “retained no messages whatsoever” as the Scottish Government's policy came under scrutiny.

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Around 28,000 electronic messages - mostly WhatsApps - have been handed over to the UK inquiry following initial delays and legal wrangling, but there has been controversy over internal guidance recommending that messages be automatically deleted.

Civil servant Lesley Fraser, the director general corporate for the Scottish Government, was the first to give evidence on Friday as the inquiry entered its fourth day of hearings in Edinburgh.

The Herald: Nicola Sturgeon is due to give evidence to the inquiry later this monthNicola Sturgeon is due to give evidence to the inquiry later this month (Image: PA)

Jamie Dawson KC, counsel to the inquiry in Scotland, highlighted a document provided by the Scottish Government which stated that all Ms Sturgeon’s messages had been deleted.

He said: “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 suggest is at the time that request was made Nicola Sturgeon, the former first minister of Scotland, had retained no messages whatsoever in connection with her management of the pandemic.”

Ms Fraser insisted that the Government is able to track how decisions were made because relevant e-mails relating to decision-making will have been retained by the FM's private office.

She told the inquiry that three individuals lost their messages when government mobile phones were upgraded, but said she did not accept that the Scottish Government's record retention policies were not fit for purpose during the pandemic.

She accepted that the loss of WhatsApp messages has caused "hurt and frustration" to people including the Covid bereaved, but added that some WhatsApp exchanges between officials drifted into "banter" which was not relevant.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said Ms Sturgeon had "defied the inquiry’s clear instructions from June 2021 that all relevant messages had to be retained".

He added: “Nicola Sturgeon’s reputation, which has been tarnished by a series of scandals in the last year, 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.”

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said the revelations were "nothing short of a shocking betrayal of the people of Scotland".

 

 

“Nicola Sturgeon should hang her head in shame," she added.

A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon - who is expected to give evidence in the final week of January - said the former FM is "committed to full transparency to both the UK and Scottish Covid inquiries".

He added: “Any messages she had, she handled and dealt with in line with the Scottish Government’s policies."

The inquiry also heard from civil servant Ken Thomson - now retired - who was the Scottish Government's director-general for strategy and external affairs during the pandemic.

The Herald: Retired Scottish Government civil servant, Ken Thomson, gives evidence to the UK Covid inquiryRetired Scottish Government civil servant, Ken Thomson, gives evidence to the UK Covid inquiry (Image: UK Covid Inquiry/YouTube)

Mr Thomson said that the use of electronic messaging by officials grew rapidly at the beginning of the Covid response as people worked from home, but stressed that it was "very rare" for Ms Sturgeon to make a decision via informal messaging.

He told the inquiry that Cabinet records were the "gold standard" for record retention, but that where there was a "salient" point relating to decision-making during informal exchanges such as WhatsApp he would transfer it for record-keeping prior to the chat being deleted.

Mr Thomson was asked to explain why he commented that "plausible deniability is my middle name" during one WhatsApp exchange with officials where the prospect was raised of their messaging being disclosed as a result of a freedom of information request. 

Mr Dawson said: "You're suggesting to people - prominent people in the Scottish Covid response - that they should as a matter of instinct delete their messages to defeat FOI requests, are you not?"

Mr Thompson said no, that he was "bantering". 

He added: "What I'm saying is unless the material is relevant and salient to the public record, in which case it should be transferred, all of the material should be deleted."

He said it became "corporate policy" to "clear the chat", once any salient points relating to decision-making had been moved into the official record. 

Mr Dawson pointed to another discussion in which Mr Thomson told colleagues: "I feel moved to remind you that this channel is FOI recoverable". 

Prof Leitch responded: "WhatsApp deletion is a pre-bed ritual."

Mr Dawson asked whether this revealed "a culture amongst people who are prominent advisors or decision-makers in connection with the Covid pandemic response to delete their messages in order to defeat the very policies for which they were set up?"

Mr Thomson rejected this, adding that the conversation had occurred in the context of concerns around a planned march by Rangers supporters through Glasgow to celebrate a title win. 

At the time, in May 2021, the highly transmissible new Delta variant had begun spreading in Glasgow and there were concerns that thousands of football fans breaking Covid restrictions to parade through some of the worst-hit communities would accelerate the spread of the disease. 

Glasgow was under Level Three restrictions at the time, with a decision imminent on whether it was safe to downgrade to Level Two, said Mr Thomson. 

The Herald: Jason Leitch was a prominent figure during the pandemic communicating the Scottish Government's public health messagingJason Leitch was a prominent figure during the pandemic communicating the Scottish Government's public health messaging (Image: PA)

He added that earlier in the chat Prof Leitch had posted a tweet from a "diehard Rangers fan" who was re-posting claims from a doctor on social media that Delta posed no risk.  

Mr Thomson said: "What I was saying in this comment referring to FOI is 'take a deep breath before you comment about the tweet you've just posted, Jason'."

Prof Leitch is due to give evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday. 

Later, Mr Thomson was asked about contemporaneous notebook entries from Derek Grieve, the deputy director of health protection within the Scottish Government's population health division. 

The inquiry was shown an entry dated February 26 2020 when Mr Grieve described having attended a Cobra meeting with then-Health Secretary Jeane Freeman. 

He wrote: "It's clear all departments in UK [Government] are fully mobilised and engaged in a way that [Scottish Government] simply isn't". 

In another entry on March 5 2020, Mr Grieve wrote that he had attended a meeting of Scottish Government directors where he had "laid it out thickly" - referring to the Covid situation - but that "few believe this is going to be serious".

Mr Dawson said this would suggest the "general mood" within the Scottish Government was "not particularly engaged with the emerging threat". 

Mr Thomson said the executive was "preparing to ramp up", but he would agree that things should have moved faster. 

The inquiry continues.