Hard Time

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By Glenn CampbellPolitical editor, BBC Scotland

The informal communications of Scottish Government ministers and officials during the pandemic matter. They really do.

The UK and Scottish Covid inquiries want access to them to help understand the context in which key decisions were made.

The release of similar material by UK government decision-makers has already proved highly revealing.

Whatsapp messages published by the UK inquiry on Monday showed That the UK's top civil servant was privately telling colleagues in 2020 That the then Prime Minister ,

In another Whatsapp exchange from That year, a top UK scientific adviser described the then chancellor, after a summer during which the Treasury had incentivised Eating Out in restaurants.

It may be That there would be nothing quite as eye-popping in the chatter between Scottish Government ministers and officials. It is possible their messages were much duller by comparison.

The Point is That it is for The Inquiry teams to decide and they can only do That if they are provided with full access to what was said.

The UK inquiry has indicated That there were some 137 messaging groups, involving 70 potential witnesses, operating in the Scottish Government and its agencies during the pandemic.

It already seems to have concluded That Full Disclosure will not be possible because much of The Material has not been retained.

The Key question is why? Why would these messages have been deleted when it was well known from the early stages of the pandemic there would be a public inquiry at The End ?

Delete-as-you-go approach

To opposition parties this smacks of secrecy and Cover Up - an effort to hide potentially damaging discussion.

The Conservatives and Labour will have the chance to question The Deputy First Minister , Shona Robison , when she makes a Holyrood statement on Tuesday afternoon.

First Minister Humza Yousaf insists the Scottish Government favours transparency, pointing out That it has already released 13,000 documents to the UK inquiry.

He also argues That there is no culture within the administration of making decisions on Whatsapp - That this process should be formally recorded elsewhere.

At The End of last week, the UK inquiry said it had received no Whatsapp data directly from the Scottish Government .

In recent weeks, the Scottish Government told The Inquiry it would need a formal legal order to release The Material .

The Bbc understands this order, known as a section 21, has now been issued and That the Scottish Government intends to move quickly to hand over whatever additional material it holds.

This takes us back to the Central Point . It can only provide material That still exists, not what has been lost to an apparent delete-as-you-go approach by some.

It has been reported That key figures, including former First Minister and national clinical director routinely cleared out their Whatsapp messages.

Neither have confirmed or denied This Was the case although Ms Sturgeon has said she will provide all The Information she holds.

In August 2021, she gave a public assurance That nothing, including WhatsApps and private emails would be Off Limits to The Public inquiries.

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Humza Yousaf has said he has from the pandemic period, during which he was justice secretary until the 2021 election and health secretary thereafter.

He has said it is for others to explain their approach to record-keeping but he has given a clue as to why some may have been quick to delete.

According to the First Minister , the Scottish Government guidance on mobile messaging suggests conversations are deleted within a month.

On The Face of it, That appears In Conflict with the government's records management policy which requires retention for as long as necessary to support business requirements and legal obligations.

The Scottish Government attempts to square this circle by explaining That staff are supposed to transfer information from informal sources like Whatsapp to the official system of record before deletion.

The Scottish Government defines records as " recorded information in any form which is created or received in the conduct of government business and which can provide evidence of activities, transactions and decisions made for, or on behalf of, the organisation".

These instructions seem to have been interpreted in different ways by different figures within the Scottish Government 's pandemic response team.

That is a source of huge frustration to the UK Covid inquiry and to bereaved relatives of those who died of Covid.

Deleting material relevant to the Scottish Covid inquiry after it issued a " do not destroy" notice Last Summer would be an offence.

It is not clear what either inquiry could do about Messages Deleted before this point, other than give those responsible a Hard Time when they appear as witnesses.

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Source of news: bbc.com