The Scottish Government's decision to ban messaging apps on official phones is a step towards transparency, but it won't recover deleted WhatsApp messages from 2020-2021 that were central to lockdown policy debates.
The decision to remove messaging apps from official smartphones used by members of the Scottish Government next year may sound like a win for transparency in politics. But it won’t restore the WhatsApp messages sent between senior civil servants and SNP ministers in 2020 and 2021 that were deleted before two official inquiries could review them.
We now know – as many suspected at the time – that key figures in Public Health Scotland and Holyrood were debating major lockdown policies in real time on their smartphones. Some of these messages were added to the official record. But many were not. It is now certain we will never view the full picture on how historic decisions were debated and signed off due to this culture of secrecy. Given the circumstances of the coronavirus emergency, face-to-face meetings became an impossibility for a prolonged period. And the rapidly evolving nature of the pandemic meant decisions had to be taken, and fast. But given the scale of the government’s unprecedented intrusion into people’s private lives, and the civil liberties suspended, the public has a right to know exactly how decisions were made. The Scottish Government does not enjoy a reputation as being entirely transparent when it faces close scrutiny. The decision to stop the use of informal messaging apps is welcome but other questions remain. Will SNP ministers simply switch to using personal phones, beyond the reach of Freedom of Information laws? Government by WhatsApp was never an acceptable way to dictate how people go about their lives. Government by secret text message would be no better. Targets missed There are very few families across Scotland who have not been affected in some way by cancer. So making sure that those affected are treated urgently is an absolute priority. For one in four patients with suspected cancer, however, they are being forced to wait more than 62 days for treatment. Receiving a cancer diagnosis is stressful enough without these delay
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