5 days ago
Ministers who bin WhatsApps face £5,000 fine after Nicola Sturgeon deletion scandal
EXCLUSIVE: A Labour MSP is behind plans to introduce a criminal sanction for the deliberate deletion of WhatsApp messages on government business.
Ministers who delete their WhatsApp messages about government business will face criminal sanctions under a secrecy crackdown.
Politicians could be fined up to £5000 after the scandal of Nicola Sturgeon wiping her messages during the pandemic.
Families who lost loved ones during covid were furious after thousands of Whatsapp messages between key Scottish Government figures were destroyed.
It meant a mass of information - including from Sturgeon's then deputy John Swinney - had been lost, fuelling claims of betrayal.
Katy Clark, a Labour MSP for West of Scotland, has introduced a new Bill to promote transparency in public life.
A key element of the plan is ensuring the covid deletion scandal never happens again.
Under the proposals, it would become a criminal offence to deliberately or recklessly wipe WhatsApp messages about government business. The penalties would apply to Ministers and public officials subject to freedom of information laws.
Clark said: 'It's completely unacceptable for politicians and officials to wipe WhatsApps, texts, and other messages about the work of government and public bodies.
'Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney still have very serious questions to answer about the disappearance of all of their WhatsApp messages about the SNP's handling of the Covid pandemic
'Their explanations about the unavailability of these messages is simply not good enough given the lives lost and the catastrophic decision to admit infected patients into care homes at the height of the Covid outbreak.'
She added: 'Nicola Sturgeon, in particular, has offered up remarkably similar excuses to Boris Johnson when failing to provide WhatsApp messages from her phone to the Covid public inquiry.
'My Freedom of Information Reform Scotland bill will tackle this head-on. This new legislation will make it a criminal offence to deliberately or recklessly erase anything in advance that could be requested under freedom of information laws.'
' Nicola Sturgeon 's and John Swinney's disappearing WhatsApp messages speak volumes about their party's contempt for the public's right to know about what were quite literally life and death decisions made by the government. Making leaders and ministers who attempt to defeat freedom of information legislation by wiping WhatsApps criminally responsible is long overdue.'
Clark also wants to extend FOI to other public bodies as she believes the right-to-know law needs to be overhauled.
Giving evidence to the UK Covid Inquiry last year, Sturgeon said her use of the app was "extremely limited" and did not relate to "substantive" government business.
She said: "There would be nothing in those communications that was not available to either the inquiry or the public, through the record of the Scottish government, or indeed in the very detailed public statements that were being made every day.'
Swinney told the same Inquiry that since entering government in 2007 he had "deleted material after I have made sure any relevant information was placed on the official record of the government'.
Messages retrieved by the UK Covid Inquiry revealed that Ken Thomson, who was a top civil servant during covid, was central to the deletion scandal.
He told colleagues in a WhatsApp group called ' Covid Outbreak' in 2020: 'Just to remind you (seriously) this is discoverable under FOI. Know where the 'clear chat' button is.' He added: 'Plausible deniability are my middle names. Now clear it again!'
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said: "Scotland has the most open and far-reaching Freedom of Information legislation in the UK. As this Member's Bill has now been introduced, it will be scrutinised by Parliament and we will consider its detail.'
