Scottish politician Nicola Sturgeon and her deputy erased all of the WhatsApp messages they exchanged related to COVID-19, according to an inquiry.
The committee was informed at a hearing in Edinburgh on Friday, Jan. 19, that Sturgeon, the former first minister of Scotland, had deleted all texts pertaining to the pandemic, while her deputy, John Swinney, had used an auto-delete function.
The Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gives a coronavirus briefing at St Andrews House on March 29, 2020 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Testimony From Lesley Fraser
Following the inquiry's complaints that key decision makers had failed to provide the information, Sturgeon consistently declined to confirm or deny whether she had deleted her WhatsApp chats.
However, it was disclosed by Jamie Dawson, the main counsel for the inquiry's module on Scotland, during testimony from Lesley Fraser, the director general corporate of the Scottish Government, that all of Sturgeon's written communication had been erased, as reported by Telegraph.
"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," Dawson said, referring to a timetable detailing which texts may be turned over to the investigation.
This suggests that when the request was made, Sturgeon had no messages in connection to her management during the pandemic, to which Fraser responded, "That's what that indicates to me, BBC reported.
Fraser said that the previous first minister would have reported anything significant to her private office; thus, the investigation would not have access to any correspondence pertaining to Sturgeon's handling of the pandemic.
While neither the Government nor Sturgeon had access to the texts, when asked how they could know that talks were added to the official record, Fraser said: "I can't know, not having seen all of the information."
'Messages Were Not Retained'
The investigation was presented with a document detailing WhatsApp use and the communications saved throughout the outbreak.
It revealed that Sturgeon had acknowledged using WhatsApp for group messaging with coworkers but said that anything of significance requiring action would be discussed at official meetings.
Nevertheless, the document pointed out: "Messages were not retained, they were deleted in routine tidying up of inboxes or changing of phones, all substantive issues were recorded by Private Office emails. Auto delete was not active. Unable to retrieve messages. Nothing to return."
Swinney spoke with Sturgeon, Jeanne Freeman (the then-health secretary), and Humza Yousaf (the current First Minister) to discuss pressing matters and prepare for official meetings. However, no records were preserved, as per a timetable.
"Messages would have been deleted by auto-delete functions or by themselves manually deleting them as they do on a regular basis," the document states.
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