The former Scottish Government finance secretary insisted at the UK Covid Inquiry that she only heard about the policy which led Jason Leitch, Gregor Smith, John Swinney and the former First Minister to delete messages in January 2022 after all key decisions had been made
By Bill Heaney
Evidence from Kate Forbes, widely tipped to become Scotland’s next First Minister after Humza Yousaf, piled huge pressure on her former boss Nicola Sturgeon during her appearance at the UK Covid Inquiry.
The islands MSP claimed that advice to delete pandemic WhatsApps was only circulated in January 2022, after all the major decisions had been made.
This evidence sheds doubt on the ex-First Minister’s claims that she wiped her correspondence in line with guidance.
The former finance secretary also confirmed that she did not retrospectively delete her messages with other cabinet members, special advisers and the private office, but did comply with this policy after January 2022.
Senior figures within the government at the time have not produced their correspondence around decision-making due to the guidance.
National clinical director Jason Leitch, right, chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith and ex-deputy first minister John Swinney have all wiped their devices citing this policy. Ms Sturgeon stated in May 2020 that there would be a public inquiry into the handling of the virus, with the Scottish inquiry officially announced in August 2021.
At the same time, she promised to hand over all her communications. “Do not destroy” notices were issued in August 2022.
Ms Forbes told the UK Covid Inquiry that a “junior member” of her private office told her it was Scottish Government policy from January 2022 for all messages within the private office to be deleted going forward and she “acquiesced” because she believed it was an instruction.
She was asked by Inquiry counsel Jamie Dawson KC if it was her understanding that there was no policy mandating the deletion of messages between her and senior members of the government, and agreed this was the case.
She said: “I did not delete any with cabinet members, special advisers, and with private office until January 2022 after all the major Covid decisions were taken at which point I was given the policy and this was first point I knew there was any policy governing messages.”
Ms Forbes did confirm she deleted hers after she was informed about the policy but that she shared her messages with the inquiry “in the spirit of being completely open”.
The former SNP leadership contender also told the Covid Inquiry that final agreement or sign off to any pandemic decisions were often delegated to Ms Sturgeon.
She said that if there was a tight decision to be made, “often those decisions would be delegated to the first minister.”
She added: “The bulk of decisions would always be made by cabinet, but when there were fine points that cabinet hadn’t come to an agreement on that final decision would rest with the first minister.”
However, she insists cabinet did have a key role in the making of decisions.
Mr Dawson also asked about the fact that meetings of the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) and the Gold Command group had no minutes. Ms Forbes said that she was “surprised” about this and that this was the first time she had heard of them not being minuted.
The KC said: “The reason we think that is the case is we have obviously asked the Scottish Government for all of its papers concerning these matters and although we have cabinet minutes, we don’t have minuted records of either of those groups.
“It becomes difficult to understand what the ultimate decision-making process was when there is no record of how those decisions were taken.” Ms Forbes responded: “I can understand that frustration.”
She added: “I think every meeting of that nature in the Scottish Government should be minuted. As I say, I’m surprised to hear they weren’t”.
When asked by Lady Hallett, right, about why she wasn’t invited to them in 2020, despite being a senior minister, she said she “didn’t even know” they were happening.
Craig Hoy MSP, Scottish Conservative chairman, said: “Kate Forbes’s evidence made it obvious that, even as a senior Cabinet Secretary, she was initially locked out of Nicola Sturgeon’s shady inner circle, which was calling the shots at the beginning of the pandemic.
“It was absolutely extraordinary – and damning evidence of the secretive way in which the former First Minister operated – to hear Ms Forbes testify that she was not even aware of the group’s existence until much later.
“She also offered a scathing assessment of the SNP’s failure to keep and provide minutes of the so-called ‘Gold command’ meetings.
“This secretive culture undoubtedly made it more difficult to ensure lessons were being learned and applied during the pandemic.
“Kate Forbes’s evidence amounts to a devastating criticism from one of the SNP’s own senior figures.”
Responding to the evidence given by Kate Forbes and John Swinney at the UK Covid Inquiry, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said: “This was a government within a government.
“Under Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney, Cabinet was expected to like it or lump it, utterly ignored on decisions as serious as shutting schools. Even the minister in charge of the economy was totally in the dark about the existence of key Gold Command meetings until she was belatedly invited to one.
“Now, the Scottish Government is refusing to explain the absence of minutes under the false pretence that the Inquiry is ongoing. It is treating families with contempt.
“Bereaved families may never get the full picture that they are fighting for. Nicola Sturgeon has major questions to answer tomorrow.”
ENDS