(C) OpenDemocracy This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Covid inquiry: Scottish CMO Gregor Smith defends deleting WhatsApps [1] [] Date: 2024-01 One of the top advisers to the Scottish government during the coronavirus pandemic has defended deleting so-called “informal communications” sent during the height of the crisis. Gregor Smith was deputy chief medical officer for the devolved administration at the start of the crisis and later became chief medical officer following the resignation of Catherine Calderwood. But giving evidence to the UK’s Covid-19 inquiry in Edinburgh, Smith – an honorary professor at the University of Glasgow – insisted he had always ensured the “most important information” from any exchanges was preserved. “My practice was to make sure that any information which was important was then captured in email form [and] formally recorded so that it was an auditable trail,” he told the fifth day of module 2A of the inquiry, which is examining the Scottish government’s handling of the pandemic. Help us uncover the truth about Covid-19 The Covid-19 public inquiry is a historic chance to find out what really happened. Make a donation “I think you will see the evidence of my approach to this, within the conversations and within other conversations, that I exhort other members of those conversations to do the same. “But my practice was, when information was no longer useful, it shouldn’t be retained.” The inquiry was shown extracts from a WhatsApp group chat titled “CMO Weekly Call”. This included a message from Graham Ellis, understood to be Scotland’s current deputy chief medical officer, which said: “Hope this isn’t FOI able? [sic]” In response, Smith instructed him and others in the group chat to “delete at the end of every day,” followed by an ellipsis (...). The extract shown to the inquiry also appeared to include jokes about cannabis and the name of the WhatsApp group, as well as discussions about discussion topics for future meetings. It follows claims of a “culture” of removing messages from group chats among figures in the Scottish government. Last week it was confirmed crucial exchanges between senior figures at the heart of Holyrood had been deleted following official guidance. The issue of missing WhatsApp messages has also dogged members of the UK government. A “security breach” was blamed for Boris Johnson’s failure to hand over a tranche of communications to the inquiry. Former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon and prime minister Rishi Sunak are also among senior figures who have seen their WhatsApps deleted, wiped or lost. Smith defended his handling of messages, insisting he had been instructed “official business shouldn’t be done within these mediums [WhatsApp] and that there should be regular deletion, partly for security purposes”. The inquiry continues. openDemocracy is fundraising to pay reporters to cover every day of the public hearings. Please donate here if you would like to support our work. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/covid-19-inquiry-scotland-whatsapp-gregor-smith/ Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/