PRESS RELEASE – The request for WhatsApp Messages of Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and other Scottish Government Ministers and Chief Medical Officers
PRESS RELEASE – 6 June 2023
The request for WhatsApp Messages of Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and other Scottish Government Ministers and Chief Medical Officers.
Preliminary Hearing at UK Covid Inquiry
6th June 2023
Statement by Aamer Anwar, Lead Solicitor for the Scottish Covid Bereaved
“This morning following our request to Lord Brailsford of the Scottish Covid19 Inquiry last Friday, we made further legal submissions this morning to the UK Covid Inquiry requesting that all unredacted WhatsApp messages and other relevant material be provided to the Inquiry, this also included seeking clarity on the requests made to Nicola Sturgeon and other ministers.
The Government is and should be answerable to the people, this applies to both the Scottish Government as well as the UK Government.
We were advised by the Scottish Minister’s Counsel that Nicola Sturgeon has advised them that she does not have such informal messages – i.e. WhatsApp messages.
Today we have sought full clarity from the UK and Scottish Inquiry as to what has happened to to Ms Sturgeon’s WhatsApp messages, why they are not being disclosed in their entirety. Ms Sturgeon and any other Scottish Minister should be in no different of a position to that of Mr Johnston, Rishi Sunak or Matt Hancock, the job of establishing the relevance is a matter for this inquiry. We have said before and say it again no individual, no matter how powerful, can be allowed to interfere with the pursuit of truth, justice, and accountability in this inquiry. Those who lost their lives to COVID-19 deserve nothing less.
Note our lead Counsel Dr. Clair Mitchell KC stated the following at the Inquiry this morning in our submissions to Baroness Hallett the UK Covid Inquiry Chair: –
“ In relation to WhatsApp messages and informal methods of communication, we note that a request has been made for over thirty cabinet witnesses to provide relevant information and that only three have complied including Mr Johnson, and even then there have been redactions.
The Scottish Covid Bereaved remind the inquiry of the media reporting of Mr Hancock ‘s book, where it is said: ‘we now chew over big decisions elsewhere and relegate formal meetings to rubber stamping exercises.’ It’s therefore vital to understand where and when using these, for example informal methods of communication, where these big decisions were being taken and that’s why it’s vital that this information is captured and presented to the inquiry in an unredacted format to allow this to happen.
At the preliminary hearing on the 1st March we stated that anything less than full disclosure would be considered as an attack on the integrity of both the UK and the Scottish Public Inquiries by the Scottish Covid Bereaved. We said that no individual, no matter how powerful, can be allowed to interfere with the pursuit of truth, justice, and accountability in this inquiry. Those who lost their lives to COVID-19 deserve nothing less.
At the time, Hugo Keith KC explained to the inquiry that each witness to the inquiry had been asked to disclose emails and other correspondence relevant to the issues addressed in their proposed witness statements, and informal or private communications about the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic to which they were party. He added that the documents include but weren’t limited to: WhatsApp messages, private messages, e-mail communications, contemporary diary or other notes, and explained that he had cast the net widely and with a fine mesh.
In relation to Scotland, we have been advised by the Scottish Ministers Counsel that the former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was asked for such informal message, but she has none. Ms Sturgeon is of course due to give evidence, along with the former deputy first minister John Swinney, Catherine Calderwood, and former health minister Jeane Freeman in Module One in three weeks’ time. The inquiry will know that there will be overlap between witnesses to this inquiry and witnesses to the Scottish inquiry.
A request has also been made in the same terms by the lead Solicitor Aamer Anwar for the Scottish Covid Inquiry in relation to WhatsApp messages. On the 4th of June on BBC Scotland, a former Health Minister Jeane Freeman, appeared in the programme and was asked for all WhatsApp messages and other materials to be released. (this was in relation to the Sunday Mail article https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/humza-yousaf-facing-legal-action-30148971)
She stated: “nobody’s asked for these WhatsApp yet from the Scottish Inquiry, so therefore nobody’s refused.” We note that Ms Freeman limited her comments to the Scottish Inquiry, but in light of all the foregoing, the Scottish Covid Bereaved have a number of questions. As previously stated, it is for the Inquiry Chair to determine what is relevant or potentially relevant.
We understand that if a witness says “I have some things of relevance” then the position this inquiry is that the information should be provided in whole in order them to establish what is relevant and what is not relevant.
What we ask though is where a witness says “I have nothing of relevance” in relation to a request for informal communications, is that an end to the matter? Is this primary consideration of all communications the start and the end of that process? Because the Scottish Covid Bereaved would submit that the inquiry should determine whether or not there is anything relevant to the inquiry and not the person from whom the informal communication method is requested. Given the fact that we were told that formal meetings were rubber stamped, it may be for example, vitally important about the organisation of the timing of a meeting, which would not perhaps strike anyone as immediately relevant to the inquiry, but in fact could absolutely be so.
It’s submitted that despite the clear way in which this has been asked for, it may not be clear to witnesses that if any communication is made by a witness which relates to their involvement in Covid, the data should all be made available for the inquiry to carry out this process. Can we be certain that the witnesses are carrying out this primary test correctly?
Further, apart from Miss Sturgeon, we’re not aware if any of the other Scottish witnesses relevant to this Module have considered whether any type of this information ought to have been provided to the UK Inquiry.
We would submit the Ms Sturgeon and any other Scottish Minister should be in no different of a position to that of Mr Johnston, Rishi Sunak or Matt Hancock and that, if not already done, a request should be made of the Scottish Ministers to provide to the Inquiry any communications held by informal means in order that the primary relevance test can be carried out by this inquiry.”
