Nicola Sturgeon has been warned by covid bereaved families’ lawyers they “know for a fact” she sent WhatsApps during the pandemic. The former first minister is at the centre of a furious row after claiming to have no “relevant” communications to release to a public inquiry she is due to give evidence to within weeks.
Solicitor Aamer Anwar has said deleting material could be a criminal offence and has asked the Information Commissioner to launch an investigation. He has spoken out as he prepares to go to London with campaigners who lost loved ones for the opening of the UK covid inquiry on Tuesday.
Sturgeon is due to give evidence along with former deputy first minister John Swinney, shamed former chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood and ex-health minister Jeane Freeman. But ministers and officials both at Westminster and Holyrood have not handed over personal online messages.
Aanwar wrote in to the Scottish Information Commissioner’s Office: “If Ms Sturgeon is saying that she has no messages then that cannot be the end of the matter. We know for a fact that Ms Sturgeon and other ministers have used WhatsApp for several years including the years during the pandemic.
“We have been advised that in August 2022, to ensure that WhatsApp material was not lost or destroyed, the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry issued ‘Do Not Destroy’ letters. We are aware the ICO office has warned officials deleting messages that could relate to investigations into alleged Covid-19 rule-breaking parties at 10 Downing Street and other departments is a criminal offence.”
The UK Government is going to court to try to avoid having to release the WhatsApps of its ministers and officials. A total of 16,465 people in Scotland have died with covid since the outbreak began in March 2020.
Public inquiries are likely to focus on the decision making behind policies that allowed infected patients to be sent to care homes.
Anwar, lead solicitor for the Scottish Covid Bereaved, said: “On Tuesday as I take my seat at the UK Inquiry it will be over three years since the first death from Covid-19. Since then nearly a quarter of a million people have died as our leaders presided over a carousel of chaos.
“In the coming weeks and months, the mantra for some of our leaders will be the word ‘hindsight’ but our governments had the privilege of knowing what was coming for years. Across the UK thousands felt marginalised, betrayed, lied to as their cries went unheard, it is for those dead who cannot cry out for justice that these bereaved families fight.
“No person, no institution, no matter how powerful, whether they be in England, Scotland, Westminster or Holyrood, can obstruct the search for the truth.”
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