An SNP minister responsible for freedom of information and government transparency uses a default timer to wipe WhatsApp messages within 24 hours, it has emerged.
George Adam, who serves as the Scottish parliamentary business minister, was challenged on his 24-hour WhatsApp timer during an interview with the BBC’s “Good Morning Scotland.”
The interviewer said to Mr. Adam: “When we were setting up this call, we had this notification flash up saying George Adam uses a default timer for disappearing messages in new chats. New messages will disappear from this chat 24 hours after they’re sent.”
WhatsApp users can set messages to disappear 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days after they’re sent unless that message is kept. Disappearing messages can be turned on for all or selected chats.
Mr. Adam replied that he didn’t use WhatsApp for parliamentary business in “any shape or form,” even though the interview was conducted over a WhatsApp call.
“What I do use WhatsApp for is for information, like my private office will get in touch with me and talk to me, ‘You’re being late for a meeting, George,’ ‘You’ve got meeting in five minutes,’ things like that,” the minister said.
He added that any information gets retained and recorded in the Scottish Government system.
‘Such a Mess’
During the COVID-19 Inquiry, it has emerged that Scotland’s former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, National Clinical Director Professor Jason Leitch, and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Gregor Smith, deleted or failed to keep WhatsApp messages relating to the pandemic.The officials referred to a policy at the time that advised against retaining information for longer than necessary.
Speaking in Scottish Parliament last week, Mr. Adam said that the SNP’s approach to government “embraced” the need for open information and accountability.
Other MSPs questioned the government’s transparency and argued there was no official policy for ministers to delete WhatsApp messages after 30 days.
Speaking to parliamentarians, Scottish Labour MSP Pauline McNeill highlighted the confusion around the policy on deleting messages.
Intervention
The Scottish ministers’ practices in message retention will be reviewed as part of a new intervention by the Scottish information commissioner.Commissioner David Hamilton said that failure to retain or even record how decisions were taken during the pandemic, deprive the COVID-19 Inquiry of information.
“Understanding how decisions are reached is how public trust in decisions are secured and lessons learned for the future,” Mr. Hamilton said.
He added that use of informal communication channels presents risks to the government’s accountability.
“My intervention will review current practices as well as identifying actions to be taken to ensure improvements are made in relation to how officials and Ministers use and retain informal communications in future,” he added in a statement.
Craig Hoy, the chairman of the Scottish Tories, welcomed the launch of the intervention.
“For too long the SNP have misled the public and tried to avoid accountability. They have disgracefully betrayed bereaved families. I hope this probe exposes the serious failings and secrecy at the heart of the SNP,” he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
He added that Mr. Adam admitting he deleted WhatsApp messages was “embarrassing and telling.”
Leader of Scottish Labour, Anas Sarwar, said on X that the SNP have betrayed the trust of the Scottish people and “may have broken the law by subverting the Covid inquiry and flouting FOI legislation.”
The action by the Scottish information commissioner was launched alongside an ongoing intervention to improve the government’s response to freedom of information requests.
