Now Covid families to ask tech giants to find missing WhatsApps

• Humza Yousaf told ‘we deserve the truth over messages’ 

Lawyers representing relatives of Covid victims are planning to ask WhatsApp owner Meta to retrieve any Scottish Government messages which may have been deleted during the pandemic.

The Mail can reveal they are planning a direct approach to the company, which also owns Facebook, to ask if any missing material which may have been ditched by key decision-makers can be accessed.

Aamer Anwar, lead solicitor for the Scottish Covid Bereaved group of relatives, said: ‘We are looking at potential mechanisms for retrieving deleted material, including making an approach to Meta.’

The move comes as Deputy First Minister Shona Robison is set to make a statement to MSPs on the issue this week.

The Mail revealed on Saturday that more than 100 Scottish Government figures are feared to have deleted thousands of messages during the pandemic.

The UK Covid Inquiry’s legal team said it believes the ‘majority’ of WhatsApp messages shared among SNP Government officials ‘have not been retained’. The explosive revelations now threaten to engulf Humza Yousaf’s Government in a damaging secrecy scandal.

The relatives of Covid victims have accused the SNP Government, which was led by Nicola Sturgeon during the pandemic, of a ‘cynical and manipulative abuse’ of due process by failing to hand over the vital online correspondence 

Questions First Minister MUST answer 

Bereaved families have told Mr Yousaf: ‘We deserve the truth about the missing WhatsApp messages.’

• Who ordered the use of auto-delete?
• How was this decision transmitted (not just to politicians but also to senior civil servants?)
• When was the order to use auto-delete issued?
• If auto-delete pre-existed the announcement of the public inquiry in August 2021, why was an order not then issued to stop any further deletion of WhatsApps and any other material?
• We now know from the Inquiry’s preliminary hearing that there were 137 WhatsApp groups that might be of interest. Perhaps as First Minister, and indeed former Cabinet Secretary for Justice then Health, you can advise how many more politicians and civil servants were deleting their messages as a matter of routine?
• Can you advise why has it taken so long for the Scottish Government to even identify the number of relevant WhatsApp groups?

It also emerged yesterday that the bereaved families have told Mr Yousaf: ‘We deserve the truth about the missing WhatsApp messages.’

The Scottish Covid Bereaved group accused the SNP Government of a ‘cynical and manipulative abuse’ of due process by failing to hand over the vital online correspondence.

The deletion of chats on private messaging apps by ministers and civil servants may have been carried out on an industrial scale, sources close to the inquiry have told the Mail.

Meta, which had revenues of around £96billion last year and whose president in charge of global affairs is former Deputy Prime Minister Sir Nick Clegg, was contacted for comment.

Professor Jason Leitch, the National Clinical Director, declined to comment on reports he had deleted messages sent and received. When The Scottish Mail on Sunday approached him at his Glasgow home at the weekend, he referred all enquiries to the Scottish Government.

Meanwhile, the Mail has been told that Chief Medical Officer Sir Gregor Smith auto-deleted Whats­App messages.

When contacted for comment, a Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘‘All ministers and civil servants, including clinicians, have been co-operating fully with the Covid-19 inquiries since their establishment.

‘More than 13,000 documents from the official record have been sent to the UK Inquiry from the Scottish Government, in addition to the corporate and personal statements requested. Providing the formal decision-making record has been our priority.

‘The UK Inquiry has subsequently asked for WhatsApp messages relating to logistics and day-to-day communication, which we are working to provide.’

The spokesman said the Deputy First Minister ‘will seek to make a statement to parliament on the issue’ early this week.

Scottish Tory chairman Craig Hoy said: ‘The SNP’s culture of secrecy and unaccountability has been utterly corrosive and it is wholly unacceptable that the public inquiry should be obstructed by the Scottish Government’s failure to provide answers.

‘The public are bound to wonder what the SNP had to hide.’

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